March 26, 2008
Review - " Chaos " (on DVD) - By Roland Hansen
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Detective Connors is a “Dirty Harry” kind of cop. Shoot first, ask questions later, and let the pencil pushers sort it all out.
Statham plays him in very much his usual gruff, no-nonsense, kick-ass, wise cracking manner (Think of Transporter meets
War). In typical Hollywood fashion they partner him with a smart, preppie, college kid still sopping wet behind the ears. Of
course it’s the smart rookie who catches on that there’s really something else going on behind the bank job, a high tech
robbery where all the perpetrators get away clean, no money is missing and nothing was taken from the safe deposit boxes.
Dekker catches on to fairly obscure references to chaos theory that the robbery mastermind made during the hostage
negotiations. Ryan Phillippe plays Dekker in his usual wooden manner. I have rarely witnessed a more boring actor than
Ryan. His deadpan acting “style” played very well in Cruel Intentions but tends to fall flat in everything else in which I've seen
him. In an unusual twist, Wesley Snipes plays the bad guy. He plays the criminal mastermind, Lorenz, as a calm self-
confident intelligent man who systematically pulls all the right strings and is one step ahead of the police at every turn. What
was missing was the kung fu hand to hand combat that you might typically find in his films. Considering their past cinematic
endeavors, I fully expected a final knock down, karate filled, kick boxing match up
between Snipes and Statham which never took place.
Justine Waddell as Detective Teddy Calloway seems to have been added for no other
purpose than to play the precinct slut. Currently screwing the captain (Henry Czemy)
and formerly Conner’s bed partner / girlfriend. One wonders if she has been
spreading her legs for everyone at the station.
Chaos is a good film with the right mixture of brains and brawn.
I give it a solid 3 stars.


“Chaos” (on DVD)
Starring: Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, Wesley Snipes, Justine Waddell, and Henry
Czemy . Written and Directed by: Tony Giglio
Detective Quentin Connors (Jason Statham) is suspended after a shooting incident in
which an innocent hostage, a congressman’s daughter, gets killed along with the thug
who carjacked her. During a bank heist the would be robbers insist on talking only to
Connors figuring it’ll buy them some time since he is no longer active on the force.
Connors is assigned a rookie cop, Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe) as sort of a
partner/babysitter. Things go south in a hurry as the crooks pretty much blow up the
bank. It’s Dekker who figures out things aren’t quite as random as they seem and that
there is more going on than meets the eye.
I was expecting a fairly traditional Statham action flick. However, I was pleasantly
surprised at how much I enjoyed “Chaos”. It is a well-written and intelligent film with
enough car chases, fight scenes, and explosions to keep action fans satisfied. There
are a multitude of plot twists, many of which I saw coming but most took me by
surprise. I didn’t feel the movie cheated in these maneuvers by introducing something
new that the audience hadn’t been exposed to. The writer/director deftly revisited
people and places that the viewer had the opportunity to suspect were more than they
appeared. The final twist I hadn’t even guessed at until maybe ten minutes before the
big reveal. Although I knew SOMETHING was up I hadn’t figured out exactly what.
