HAVOC

Tom Hardy stars as Walker, a detective who must save mayor Lawrence Beaumont's (Forest Whitaker) son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) from prosecution for a drug deal gone wrong. During his attempt to save Charlie, he must battle both sides of the law as the local triad believes Charlie is responsible for the deal going sideways and are looking to kill him while the police are looking to lock Charlie up. Writer/Director Gareth Evans homage to the Hong Kong films he grew up watching such as John Woo's THE KILLER, is a decent attempt to be in the same conversation, but ultimately fails in his endeavor. Outside of the opening chase scene and a gunfight in the woods during the third act, the film did little to hold my attention. There was a fight in a nightclub during the second act that comes across painfully artificial and choreographed. In addition, this story's been done a million times with Evans bringing nothing new to the genre. Hardy is the only standout performance but the material is so weak, he can only do so much to carry this picture. Not only that, but I found it obscenely laughable the term "assault rifle" is uttered by Hardy and his partner at least half a dozen times. Now I know Netflix is just gaslighting us but I'll pose the question anyway: what exactly is an assault rifle? 5.5/10