Cardboard actioner without any charm. A policeman (Busey) goes to a troubled country of Latin American (great "cliché") hunting a wanted criminal (Rivers) but things doesn't go well and they find themselves attached to each other by a chain. Routine plot had better examples in the past. Extremely boring and dull. I give this a 4 (four).
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gazineo-18 January 2002
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martin-secker1 November 2007Somewhere down the line, Gary Busey turned from fantastic character actor starring in the likes of Big Wednesday, Straight Time and The Buddy Holly Story to playing wide-eyed bloated villains (Under Siege, Drop Zone) or D-List Action Leads (Bulletproof, Act Of Piracy). This movie falls into the latter category - The Chain is made by and for the Friday post-pub brigade, the acting is good, the action is ordinary and the storyline is unoriginal. Yet, it still entertains. Like Busey, the movie has an edgy charm, it would take a person with a heart of stone to not find Busey amusing. In short, 3 of four stars I've awarded this movie are for Busey, a single star for everything else.
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NoDakTatum22 November 2023Gary Busey, who has appeared in exactly one good movie ("The Buddy Holly Story") in his life, huffs and puffs through a Filipino jungle, chained to his arch enemy, and making the viewer wistful for "The Defiant Ones"...or even "Deadlock 2." Frank (Gary Busey) is a Boston cop obsessed with capturing gunrunner Carlos (Victor Rivers- think Antonio Banderas with John Waters' mustache), who is always two steps ahead of Frank. Frank and his angry wife Ellen (Jamie Rose) fly to the South American city of Vera Cruz to vacation and save their marriage...I know, I know, more on the Filipino geography mystery later. Frank is in Vera Cruz to track Carlos, and Ellen has had enough. She takes up with a rico suave stranger in the hotel bar while Frank is roughed up and then fired from the police force over the phone. Ellen gets cold feet and rejects the rico suave who turns out to be Carlos (gasp!). Frank follows Carlos and the two men are captured during one of their many fights. The duo are transported to the ominous Los Muerto prison camp, where the evil commander Zalir (Craig Judd) chains our moaning heroes together, and then decides to execute them. They are saved in the nick of time by a rebel attack and escape into the jungle, bickering and chained together. Ellen finally heads to the U. S. Embassy, worried, and meets with the ambassador and a mysterious CIA man, but don't fret, this subplot is never pursued, and we don't see Ellen again until the end of the film.
I am not sure what writer/director Luca Bercovici was trying to accomplish. From the opening scene involving Frank and his partner (Bercovici) dressed like clowns to bust the gunrunner, to Frank and Carlos' constant arguing, to the disastrously unfunny one-liners, any light or humorous touch attempted fails miserably. Frank is a jerk, and Carlos a murdering gunrunner, so I could not care less if they got out of that jungle alive or not. It should have been simple, since many a shot shows that Busey's iron hand cuff could be slipped out of easily. About that jungle: the video box places the story in South America. All of the place names and most of the native characters' names are Spanish. Yet, the film was shot in the Philippines, using obviously local actors. The story is so boring and badly done, I tried instead to figure out just where all of this was happening. By the time Frank heals a sick child by creepily whispering in his ear, I deemed the whole mess unwatchable. While this was released in the late 1990's, it looks and plays like a buddy movie from the 1980's. This chain should be broken. -
refinedsugar18 May 2023Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon, Under Siege) & Victor Rivers (Blood In Blood Out) are literally chained together as cop & criminal respectively down in Latin America. The kind of movie that littered the shelves at your local corner store or Blockbuster back in the 90's with about as much fresh energy as you would expect here. Which is to say not much.
Mortal enemies who have to get over their hostility to work together, survive, earn a mutual respect begrudgingly or even become friends. It's a one note premise that's already been done before to death. The formula is obvious and it's worn and the script here is one note and borderline boring.
'The Chain' isn't horribly made or acted - there's some required bursts of action - it's just tired and plain feeling. You might have chose to watch it back in the day because of Busey as he has his charms, but this isn't top tier Gary and with so much out there to choose from you can make a better pick. -
Leofwine_draca26 December 2015I've always had a fondness for low-budget actioners and THE CHAIN is no exception, a film that utilises the popular, somewhat clichéd plot device of having the two central characters chained together at the wrist. We've seen this done briefly in the likes of DRIVE and PROJECT A PART II, and also in other feature films like FLED, but THE CHAIN has an efficient – if not particularly memorable – reworking of the idea. The generally good direction is a real surprise when you realise that director Luca Bercovici cut his teeth on the likes of '80s junk like GHOULIES and, even worse, ROCKULA (shudder!).
The strength of a film always lies in the central casting, and the good news is that Gary Busey and Victor Rivers are up to the job in this film. Rivers, a Cuban star, is a decent anti-hero, an honourable criminal who underplays his role for the most part. Not so for Gary Busey, unsurprisingly. Busey always seems to play himself in films, whether it be UNDER SIEGE, LETHAL WEAPON, or this, no matter whether he's a good guy or bad. He's always got the same mannerisms, the same "huh!" catchphrases, the same facial expressions, and I absolutely love him for it. Busey begins the film in a hilarious bust where he's dressed as a clown, and he stresses and spits for the rest of the film. Just for some reason I find this actor entirely memorable and lovable, so much so that he's a highlight no matter what film he's in.
The film was shot entirely in the Philippines, so you know it's going to look cheap. At least the jungle locations are authentic and the film has a half-gritty atmosphere to recommend it. The plot is entirely predictable as our heroes face huge cliffs, prison camps, deadly snakes, vicious rebels, death by killer ant swarms and more, and are all the time pursued by a military faction who intend to capture and kill them.
The low budget action antics are pretty well shot, with lots of machine gun fire, jungle camps bursting into flames and some cheesy take-it-in-turns fist-fights. The bad guy of the movie is Filipino Rez Cortez, who's a dead ringer for BEASTMASTER's Marc Singer, and he's pretty funny in the role, either fuming or furious. The supporting cast are mostly Filipino, with the exception of TV actress Jamie Rose who is underwhelming as Busey's wife. Noted Filipino character actor Joonee Gamboa – who started off his career in the early '70s with the likes of BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT – is great as the rebel leader. However, the strength of the movie lies not in the cheesy, predictable action antics but instead in the central bickering between our two heroes, which never becomes tiring. And I stand by my belief that Gary Busey is hugely entertaining. -
Pants11893 January 2002Most people would consider this movie a little lacking in realism. This may be true, but any movie that puts Gary Busey in a clown suit, and gets him beat up by a group of mexicans, is definately a quality movie in my book. This movie, despite it's somewhat lack of insanity on the part of the Buse's character, set a standard in action movies, to be copied by such films as Fled.