Chaos (II) (2005) User Reviews (158)

Better than you will think, not quite as good as you hoped for.. but generally satisfying.

[siit · 7/10 · 19 January 2007]

Chaos was actually very different from the usual run of the mill *yawn yawn* action movies. Maybe because I like Jason Statham so much, but I enjoyed Chaos. Sure it was predictable, but it tried to be clever, different and have that twist. And its almost funny seeing Statham switch from London to American accent all the time, and Snipes wasn't the best.. but on the whole it was a better than your average movie.

So the quick synopsis; Statham is a much maligned suspended detective called in to be a negotiator in a bank robbery. The siege becomes complicated, and the audience has to understand the past and present to unravel the future and what is really going on.

OK down to the nitty-gritty. Chaos could have been a class act if it was done just a tad differently. Snipes needed to be as controlled as he was in the beginning, Statham should have stayed English accent, and the plot (punchline) should not have been delivered with a sledgehammer - or - not trust the audience to work things out without feeling the need to spell it out TOO clearly. I am reminded of another excellent and cognitive heist movie when seeing Chaos. I will not say it's name as that may be unwittingly revealing.

Statham is one of my favourites from Lock/Stock, Transporter etc and I like his presence in every performance I have seen him in thus far. Snipes I could take or leave yet I was happy he didn't try to encompass the entire screen! but the pleasant surprise I had was with Ryan Phillipe. I think he's becoming a class actor and I would love to see him land some plum roles that highlights his talent.

Overall, Chaos tries a philosophical and clever approach that is different from the average outing; regardless of what the DVD front cover may suggest, possessing a hypnotic funky score, in general good acting and a decent enough plot... overlook the obvious anomalies, and Chaos provides value.

Not too bad!

[supertom-3 · 6/10 · 9 April 2006]

This is a reasonably brisk paced and entertaining action thriller. There's a similar story to Spike Lee's critical hit, Inside Man, only Chaos was made two years ago, and is as yet awaiting its release. This may give an indication to the fact the film is not really a bankable product. This is not down to quality, because this is by no means a bad film, it's just what you might call a marketing nightmare, as a theatrical release anyway. It's a "thinks it's cleverer than it is" thriller starring two martial arts stars, but without martial arts. In fact this isn't action all the way as you might expect with Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes as two of the headliners. Eventually this will find a release, but probably DTV.

Chaos is an enjoyable flick though. We have Ryan Phillipe and Jason Statham teaming up to investigate a bank heist. As the title suggests, this film is about Chaos, or the Chaos theory, whereby seemingly random acts are in fact connected. Wesley Snipes co-stars as the bank robber in question. The cast are good. Phillipe shares lead duties with Statham, and handles the film well. His character is pretty two dimensional but he does it convincingly and handles the action well too. Statham, delivering another strange accent, supposedly American, is despite his accent, charismatic. It's Wesley Snipes though who stands out, actually enjoying himself after a string of sub-standard, lazy performances in his DTV action vehicles and also in Blade Trinity.

The film looks polished, has a decent score and is a good watch. It just feels very DTV but a better than the normal DTV. Indeed this may have one or two twists too many but the twisting plot manages to keep you guessing as it unravels. Overall not bad, but nothing new. **½

Great Cast......Good movie!

[DxB_PiRaTe · 7/10 · 5 January 2006]

I went to this movie with the lowest expectations and i just thought i would see a van dammed type of movie. But I was in for a surprise. The movie has good twists and action, I really loved the acting from Jasom Statham who is a really good actor! If you are an action movies fan then you shouldn't miss this movie... and don't think this movie is an all action movie, the story is well written and the twists are well made. I'd say go for it if you don't know which movie to watch!

The movie starts with Jason Statham out of the force. So then they had to get him back because of a bank robbery and the bad guys asked for him. Something bad happens in the Bank, then the cops are after the bad guys looking for them. You will have to keep a close eye at the movie, it's a good action thriller that you will not expect to be as good as it is!! and after this movie i'll proudly say i'm a huge fan of Jason Statham (Snatch, Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels, Transporter, Transporter 2, Cellular, CHAOS), this guy is just amazing!

Better than you think (better than it starts out) crime drama is worth a bucket of popcorn

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 27 April 2008]

Jason Statham is brought back on to the police force to chase Wesley Snipes who stages a spectacular bank robbery. Paired with Ryan Phillipe things begin to get weird as they are forced to look for a pattern in the chaos that Snipes is causing.

Better than you think it will be action thriller. Don't let the by the numbers opening and early moments put you off. Once this gets going its a really good little thriller because it doesn't behave in the ways you expect it too. indeed there are a couple of twists that really surprised me. And of course the action scenes are very well done. I liked it a great deal. Worth some popcorn on the couch

Much better than expected

[mumia-1 · 7/10 · 1 May 2006]

When I started watching this movie, I didn't expect much. in fact with Snipes and Statham, I assumed this was a typical silly action flick, like transporter 2. But I was wrong, very wrong. In fact this movie is really good. I've enjoyed watching it, which is a big thing cause it was quite a while since the last time I could say that to a movie. In my opinion Snipes plays a really good villain. But unfortunately for the fans, he doesn't get much screen time. OK, there are some clichés in the story, but it's still not a bad one, and you can't guess what will happen next. The only major weakness in the movie IMHO is Ryan Phillipe, his performance is just simply BAD (that should be in bold). If it wasn't for him I'd give this movie an eight. So all in all, I think this movie is worth watching especially for those who like thrillers. But if you only want to see Snipes and Statham fight, or you're looking for plain action, avoid it. There are no fights, and the action is limited to a single chase, and some gunfights.

And he is coming to Mexico!

[RainDogJr · 29 April 2008]

In mathematics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.

I copied that from Wikipedia just because that theory is used in the main plan of one of the characters. The film begins with an event that changes the life of Det. Quentin Conners (Jason Statham) forever and eventually he is suspended of the police. Later we have an apparently normal bank robbery that ends with the return of Conners, as a desire of the criminals, and with a mystery about the real intentions of the criminals. And there we have the main characters, Conners of course and his new partner Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe) looking out for the criminals having different theories. I really like that part of the film mostly because of a cool performance of Statham, teaching some lessons to the younger inspector, being a tough guy but even creating a friendship with him and a good work environment for his detectives partners. Also I like how the began to have their own different theories, even thinking that all was just a revenge against Connors but the film has many twists with many little details, of course all based upon the chaos theory and although the very end has the classic mayor twist, like in "The Usual Suspects" or in "Lucky Number Slevin", is still cool to see Statham coming to Mexico!

Well I must add that I never hear a thing about this film until about one week ago that was finally released in theaters and its big publicity ends with commercials in football games, I mean in a corner kick or in a foul the narrators says: "Jason Statham stars in Chaos. Soon in your theater", you know the classic stuff. I write that because I was a victim of the publicity so suddenly I really wanted to check this film, mostly just for Statham and because there are not many other options in commercial theaters right now. So I convinced my family for going to watch it but I said to them that maybe it was going to be the typical Hollywood bad action film and I was just another victim of the publicity but eventually we have a pleasant surprise with this good, not great, film. Yes, pure entertainment!

Too much chaos

[cryptkeeperboy · 6/10 · 21 January 2006]

Let's be fair, it's a good movie BUT it's hardly memorable or spectacular in the long term. I think what the director thought was... "people like smart action movies, therefore i'll make mine smart". Well here's the difference you have action movies that don't look that smart but actually are. And this one looks smart but actually isn't. The problem with that is that it tries to outdo itself, especially the last thirty minutes... where the detective comes upon a different plot every ten minutes, so what we get then is a Usual Suspects kinda montage of every far fetched clue we overlooked only to be changed entirely ten minutes later up until a point were you stop caring.

The director/writer will have to explain to me how detectives take a mathematical theory seriously as a tool to outsmart cops. Again maybe the director wanted to be smart again, by namedropping it's plot by defining it with some fancy word.

Anyway i didn't think much of Jason Statham's acting at all, he's kinda like the Orlando Bloom of the action movies... luckily he doesn't carry this movie alone (unlike The Transporter). Wesley Snipes' character is typical Snipes, after starring in numerous action movies i suppose it was a walk in the park for him. And Ryan Philliphe is a very promising upcoming actor, he really delivers probably the best acting (along with Snipes) in the entire movie.

Just see it once and you'll be entertained. Just don't try to think much about the plot after worths or you'll be insulted.

High quality, lacks good plot.

[athena24 · 6/10 · 3 September 2006]

Like in "Butterfly Effect", this movie doesn't have anything to do with the chaos theory and just made to draw our attention to it. Someone tried to do the movie a smart one so he tried to relate the plot to the chaos theory. It looks like this person didn't know what the theory is about, it's just it sounded "cool", and he tried on the basis of this cool term to do a movie. He really messed up.

Chaos is trying to catch up with movies like 'The Usual Suspect' but the plot and the actors, though they do they work fine, can't be really compared. Although Jason Statham is as good as in any other movie, Wesley Snipes doesn't affect to much with his role. It could be done by someone else, though according to his last couple of movies this one is a major step up. Ryan Phillipe beside Jason Statham looks like a school boy at the blackboard trying to solve equations. As someone already noted here, he reminds Justin Timberlake which is clearly not to his advantage. As for others, I would say that they are doing well.

The worst thing is the over-smart plot that makes no logic at all. I won't add more on this subject.

Not everything is bad. Overall the movie is well done. I think that the appropriate word for it is - quality. This is a high quality movie in most terms. The support actors are good, the action and explosions are made by high standard .The best part of the movie is cinematography. From the beginning of Chaos you know the cinematography keeps you watching the movie till the end.

My personal feeling about this movie is that it was quite OK. I can't say I liked it because of the lack of interest in the plot, not to that it's dumb. I can't say I disliked it either. The camera work and Most of the actor's play make it watchable so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Rarely I stumble into a really good Thriller, so if you would like to see one not expecting to much from it, I would advise you settle for this.

Good Movie

[jnrar1231 · 8/10 · 22 October 2006]

Unlike other Wesley Snipes recent movies, this one was quite a surprisingly good movie. When I popped this movie in, I was expecting an below then average movie, but like so many others like me, I had to see for myself. This movie reminded me of inside man, and the cast was worth the watch.

This was definitely a good movie. The twist in the movie was quite a surprise. Jason Statham plays an excellent roll and Ryan Phillipe did a great job with his performance.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who want to sit down and watch a good action flick!

Statham fans will enjoy, but it fell apart at the end.

[chaoscraz · 6/10 · 7 March 2006]

I enjoyed this movie, especially the first half. Unfortunately, in the last 30 minutes or so, everything just fell apart. But it's still worthwhile. If you're a Statham fan, I would definitely recommend it.

Also, Statham has a thick accent in this movie, but he is supposed to be a veteran Seattle cop, which is kind of strange but I found easy to get past. Maybe you won't.

This movie would have been a cult hit if they had filled in the gaps at the end. The heavy editing is very obvious. This is an example where they should have gone back and re-shot some scenes. Instead, they just mashed everything together--scene after scene. It also ended too quickly. What happens with Shane (Phillippe)? And how about Teddy (Waddell) and her feelings about Conners (Statham)? One final note, the chaos theme was just stupid and not needed. It was not central to the movie. It also reminds me of the chess theme in Revolver, which was stupid as well. I guess Statham likes to play the secret genius. On the outside, he is all rough and grizzled, but on the inside he is a mathematical genius. That said, I still think Statham is the best action character in the movies today, hands down.

Great Statham and Not Much Else

[tkdlifemagazine · 4/10 · 15 October 2021]

This cast makes the film very watchable even though it is not great. Jason Statham is his strong, compelling self as the wrongly disgraced cop seeking redemption. Ryan Phillipe is like able but a little miscast as the cerebral cop trying to put the pieces of this puzzle together. It is good to see The ageless Wesley Snipes as the villain, although he is underutilized. Decent action. Weak dialogue. The strength is the interplay of these actors as their characters. There is a fun twist I did not see coming.

Pretty good

[saintsman-69451 · 8/10 · 30 June 2019]

All in all a good movie. Most people who say this has nothing to do with Chaos theory don't understand what that is or didn't even pay attention to the story. It's not complicated to understand, but I guess those people aren't very smart. Movie has pretty good acting. Take the movie for what it is. It's not something trying to be smarter than it claims to be. Some people try to make this movie more than what it is and are reaching when it comes to their "high expectations".

Jason Statham and a decent mystery plot line

[The_Void · 7/10 · 25 September 2006]

All the signs were pointing to this being a bad movie. First of all, it's been in limbo for two years; and that is especially bad when you consider that the film has enough stars to secure itself a release. Therefore, that fact must mean that the reason for the film not getting a release is due to it being difficult to market, and therefore there's a good chance that it's not really worth seeing. However, that's actually not the case as while this film doesn't break any new ground and offers only a way to waste an hour and a half of your life; you could certainly do a lot worse than see this film. Comparisons to Spike Lee's recent thriller 'Inside Man' are going to happen, but since this film was made first; you have to wonder who was taking influence from whom. The plot focuses on a bizarre bank robbery in which nothing was taken from the bank, and the bank robber disappeared. Disgraced copper Quentin Conners (Jason Statham) is brought in to deal with the situation, and he hooks up with the son of a 'great cop', Shane Dekker; and we follow the pair as they try to get the bottom of all the chaos...

Sometimes films try to be a bit too clever, and that's what this one has done. Writer-director Tony Giglio has obviously put a lot of thought into his film, but his script isn't broad enough to compensate for the demands of the plot, and it often feels flat and unfinished. That being said, it is fun to watch and the film does present and intriguing mystery with a few surprising twists along the way. We are never given enough information to get the bottom of the plot ourselves, but sometimes we're given barely anything at all; and it is at these moments where Chaos is at its worst as it fails to be intriguing. The central cast is good, however, with Jason Statham delivering the sort of 'hard' performance he has become famous for, while Ryan Phillippe is the pick of the performers for his slightly naive, yet focused role. Wesley Snipes' star profile has dwindled recently, and this film (along with all the other films he's made recently), isn't going to change that. He lacks screen presence and doesn't do much with his small amount of screen time. Overall, as I said; this is far from perfect, but if all you want is a decent flick to watch and forget, this isn't too bad a choice.

Snorefest

[valleyjohn · 4/10 · 21 November 2020]

I don't mind admitting that Jason Statham films are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine . They don't normally require a lot of thought process and are usually entertaining. Chaos is one of his lesser known films that completely goes against that theory .

This is the story of two cops, a rookie and a grizzled vet, and their attempt at catching an accomplished bank robber.

This isn't one of those Jason Statham films where he kicks the shit out of everyone. I wish it was . This is a bank heist caper that tries to be far to clever and just ends up being tedious and predictable.

I'm not a fan of Ryan Phillippe . He lacks any charisma and that personality vacuum is on full display in this film . I don't mind Wesley Snipes but he's in this far too little . Perhaps he was busy filing his taxes ?

It's called chaos but it's actually quite the opposite. It's just boring and as I've always said , if you are going to make a film , making it boring is just unforgivable . Zzzzzzzz

Chock full of twists but lacking realism

[refdan · 6/10 · 2 May 2008]

I am one of those who likes to see realistic scenarios in thrillers or action movies. This movie has a good cast, reasonable acting performances, good special effects and an interesting twist on crime/revenge stories.

I won't rehash the plot, because that is redundant.

If you are into action flicks with realistic fights and events, then you will be disappointed with this one. Although the staging is good, the fight scenes come across as contrived and fake.

My pet peeve is the inaccuracy of weapons. Supposedly, the cops and ex-cops in this scenario are skilled with their weapons, however many more shots miss their targets than I would expect. Characters actually dodge bullets and emerge unscathed after many rounds at close range. When shots do finally land, the bad guys die and the good guys are only winged, even when they are standing in full view of the shooters.

Characters take strikes with heavy objects and remain uninjured and do not even lose consciousness.

Admittedly, this film is not really about fights but about solving a mystery. At that, the filmmakers succeed greatly. I was truly surprised by the ending.

Excellent Flick!!

[mdechene · 7/10 · 20 February 2008]

This story line was absolutely fascinating! The stars were outstanding! Wesley Snipes, who usually doesn't play very interesting parts had a smaller than usual part in this movie. He was really very good at what he did! Best part I've seen him play for a long time! I was relunctant to rent the movie when I saw that he was a star, but I rented it because I love Jason Stathom. I was not disappointed. The action scenes were well done & edited to perfection. I usually rate movies without mercy! This one did not deserve any criticism! If you are a Statham or Pillippe fan, you won't want to miss this great flick! Cannot figure out why it took me until 2008 to discover this 2005 film!!

Good action with a few twists...

[Enchorde · 7/10 · 26 May 2006]

Recap: A lone kidnapper, with a famous victim, is gunned down by police on a bridge leaving both the kidnapper and victim dead. An investigation and trial leads to one officer fired and detective Conners suspended. Now a bank robbery has gone slightly wrong, leaving the robbers with a lot of hostages, and they won't talk to anyone but Conners. Conners is quickly found and brought back, but now with young partner Shane Dekker keeping an eye on him for the captain. As the SWAT-team attempts to break in to the bank, the robbers make an spectacular escape. Conners and his partners must now chase the robbers all over town. But leads are hard to come by, and the chief robber is out to cover his tracks, even if it means killing his partners...

Comments: A good action/thriller with a surprisingly low distribution given the cast and quality of the movie. Nice to see Snipes in a good movie again, along with others like Statham and Phillipe and the new acquaintance (to me) Wadell. Together they pull off a really good performance.

The story is good to with some nice actions scenes, explosions and a car chase. It also has its twists and turns and flashbacks slowly revealing the truth, cause everything is not like it first seems. Unfortunately it is a little too predictable. Not like you know the ending after watching a few minutes, but it is not hard to keep at least one step ahead of the movie. The twists intended to surprise fail to surprise, often because the movie has hinted it a little to obvious. I approve of the use of fore-shadowing though, integrating twists into the story so that they do not drop in out of the blue, but here it was made a little too obvious.

Still, it was a good 90 minutes of quality entertainment...

7/10

A solid crime thriller with plenty of decent twists

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 26 February 2020]

Following an incident where a hostage is accidentally killed by the police in Seattle detective Quentin Conners is suspended from duty and his partner leaves the police. Sometime later a group of armed men take control of a bank; when the alarm is triggered the building is surrounded by the police. The gang's leader, who calls himself 'Lorenz' says he will only deal with Conners. Fearing Lorenz will kill the hostages it is decided to storm the building. Things don't go to plan and in the confusion crooks escape. Strangely there doesn't appear to be any money missing. Conners is to lead the search for the crooks, he is partnered with younger officer, Shane Dekker. As the investigation proceeds various theories as to what the thieves actually stole emerge before the true scale of the crime emerges.

This might not be the greatest example of the genre but it is still a pretty good film. The story provides a decent amount of action, a good mystery and some genuinely surprising twists. The action is nicely varied with shootouts, fights, explosions and a decent motorbike/car chase. While nobody was going to be getting awards for this the cast is solid. Jason Statham is fun in the lead role; he is one of those actors who doesn't really do a wide variety of character types but does one type very well... fans know what to expect from him and shouldn't be disappointed. Wesley Snipes is suitable villainous as Lorenz; this may not be up with his performance in the likes of 'Demolition Man' but it is still good. Ryan Phillippe is solid as Dekker, a character not as charismatic as the other two leads but still interesting. The rest of the cast are pretty decent. Overall a fun film that I'd recommend to fans of the genre, specifically if you are a fan of Statham or Snipes.

Excellent

[mrshaikat · 10/10 · 13 July 2006]

I will say this is the best movie of Jason Statham.Usually i find Jason is action based film like transporter.But here his intelligent character was really good. This movie has some reality action.All the actors perform perfectly.Wesley Snipes is a continuous performer.I have seen Ryan Phillipe in crash also.But he performed better in chaos. Director really made a good link between chaos theory and movie plot.New kind of bank robbery also impressed me.This movie has a story twist. Before that, the movie seems ordinary .When the twist start, it begins rolling.Overall I can say,this is a really good movie for enjoyment.

Nothing special...

[kmfazio · 6/10 · 10 October 2021]

Just your typical "go find the bank robber" movie. But be warned, the soundtrack is aweful. Audio levels for different actors, background music and explosions are all over the map. Had to raise the volume to hear Stathem, then lower it to keep my windows from breaking during scenes with gunfire. Have your remote handy if you decide to watch it.

A total chaos

[Semisonic · 3/10 · 24 March 2017]

This is the kind of a movie Statham earned bad rep for. And it doesn't even deserve a review, except that writing one might give you a chance to save 106 minutes of your life, a luxury I didn't have. So here goes.

First off, don't be fooled by the mumbo jumbo. This film tries so hard to look smart and slick, but ends up typical Statham stupid. The all so meaningful lines all around feel like a random scramble of big words instead of the pieces of one big puzzle that would fit together towards the end. In fact, there's no big puzzle at all: this film is so devoid of any logic and consistency that 30 minutes in I ultimately gave up trying to even guess what's going on.

But turning off your brains won't help you sit out this one. Chaos is not decent even at its action aspect. A handful of fights and shootouts, also feeling just randomly put in, are all that's gonna be served to you. And served so lazily that the film doesn't even bother trying to explain why all the stupid stuff like an unexpectedly activated loud beeper while a person carrying one lies in an ambush could happen in the first place. In fact, it's even for the better, because when the film actually tries to explain something to create at least a resemblance of some mystery unfolded, it fails so miserably you'd wish you never heard that nonsense at all.

Please, don't repeat my mistake by trusting the "it's not so bad" reviews. I don't know if the authors of those are brain-dead or just trolling. But this is not even a typical Statham movie. This is much worse, a total wreck I hope Statham and Snipes feel ashamed of now. Although, when you participate in a garbagefest like this, I doubt you worry too much about integrity or conscience. After all, such films are made with strictly one purpose in mind: to rob the naive and gullible audience out of some cash. Well, don't be a tool and stay away from this mess of a film, instead, spend your time on something more exciting, like taking a crap or washing dishes. You're welcome!

Much potential, good acting and yet... Chaos.

[slash83_mus · 8/10 · 3 May 2006]

After seeing Snipes' horrible, horrible '7 seconds' and 'the Marksman', I wasn't particularly thrilled when I saw his name on the payroll. But hey, everybody makes mistakes. And Jason 'Snatch' Statham... well, that's about all it takes for me to at least give it a try.

Well then, on to the first half of the movie. Although maybe a nice artistic touch, the very first scene gives away a part of the plot. We see a big clipboard full with articles and pictures of one Det. Connors, trialled and suspended after a fatal accident on a bridge. First clue: Someone is after Connor.

Then the movie starts out pretty nice. A bank robbery, some nice action and Connor back on the force and on the case. The master thief, who calls himself Lorenz (Snipes) escapes along with the other robbers forcing Connor to start a big-scale hunt. Connor and his newly appointed sidekick, the youngster Det. Dekker (Philippe) then shoot, threaten, joke, smart-talk and one-line their way to the point where Lorenz' real identity is revealed. But is it really him who is the brain behind all this?

The movie is a somewhat strange combination of clichés and smart plot-twists. The director manages to build up the tension to some extent and Statham, Snipes and Philippe do a good job in making the characters believable. Direction overall is fine, as is the camera-work, the dialog, the score and the plot.

Then comes the last 30 minutes or so of the movie. One single event triggers Dekker to re-think everything, which unfortunately results in boring and unnecessary flashbacks. Pieces of the puzzle seem to fall together, bam. The end. Huh?

I can't seem to point out the main reason for the chaos later on in this movie. Is it the directing? Is it the script? A combination perhaps? I do get the plot, still it's confusing.

All in all a very enjoyable movie, some fun and smart plot-twists, decent acting and overall pretty good script. But those last 30 minutes... Seriously, I am confused. Oh well, they called it 'chaos', at least now I know why.

Chaos

[allmoviesfan · 6/10 · 17 September 2023]

Another IMDB recommendation that hasn't led me astray.

Jason Statham plays a veteran, jaded cop and Ryan Philippe plays a fresh-faced youngster, with his own ghosts. The Statham/Phillipe relationship is an interesting one.

Wesley Snipes is the bad guy, a bank robber who pulls off some spectacular heists. Who knew Snipes could play such a competent bad guy? Definitely a departure from the norm for him.

There are some good action sequences littered throughout the film (though they are not as violent or as frequent as some Statham or Snipes fans might be hoping for), along with the expected police cliches, and a decent plot twist towards the end.

Wow, that was really bad.

[kyla-72302 · 4/10 · 24 May 2023]

Wow, that was not good. I thought Ryan Phillipe was fine, I don't know why all the other reviews picked him out to pick on. I think apart from some horrendous dialogue he was one of the better actors.

And oh was that dialogue painful. The whole movie had a real Canadian TV drama feel to it, and they really didn't need to reshow half the film in the last half hour to try to explain the plot. It was very clear. I guess they ran out of time or money and had to reuse the footage?

I think it just kind of ended too, but I wasn't really paying attention during the last 10 minutes, I had moved on to other things.

Anyway, there are much much better mindless action movies to watch.

it deserved a bigger budget

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 23 February 2022]

Stars jason statham, who specializes in playing the bad guy. Here, he's a cop, who comes back from suspension to help negotiate with bank robbers. Co-stars ryan phillippe and wesley snipes. Lorenzo (snipes) and his gang take hostages and bust up the bank, but it looks like nothing was taken....what really happened here? Lots of twists and turns. Written and directed by tony giglio. The notes say this went right to home video, due to drama and difficulties negotiating the rights. It's ironic that the film about a police negotiator wasn't able to negotiate the film rights. Gotta say, lots of factual, editing, and timing errors in this. It's entertaining, but lack of a proper editing budget may have been the real cause of it going straight to video. Worth watching, but it deserved a bigger budget. Or something.