Action-Adventure Tom Hardy to Star in Gareth Evans' Action Movie Havoc for Netflix

[Pennywise]

 

[Deck Rickard]

Can Gareth Evans just direct every action movie from now on? I’m sick of the fake-as-hell, cartoonish bull**** in the Fast & Furious movies and the absurd, way-too-slick sequences in the John Wick franchise. Evans knows how to make this kind of thing really feel brutal.

 

[Stringer]

Evans mastered the ability of getting into the thick of the action without compromising the spacing and geography of the actors. I'm a huge fan of the steady, wide shots in the Wick type movies but gritty urgency is where Evans shines.

 

[Luigi]

Awww yeah, my boy Gareth is cooking.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Sad to report this was mostly meh to me. My hype was all kinds of high going in. Trailer was better than the flick to me who knows, kinda bummed. All the ingredients were there to make this a hell of a flick. Not a fan of the camera movement during them action scenes at all, can’t really highlight most of them that way it just there. This don’t come close to any of the John Wick flicks fight wise or story wise, which sucks to say, Gareth is a master, but here he kinda missed for me. My own disappointment aside! This isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it could have been so much more.

Jessie Mei Li Is the stand out.

6/10

 

[KaijuDude1992]

It's not as good as his Raid films and the shaky cam was a bit much at times but I really enjoyed it and thought Evans cooked here for the most part especially with the brutal, gritty action sequences.

This would have been great to see on the bigscreen in a packed theater especially with how awesome the sound design is at times during those shootouts.

7.5/10

 

[Elayis]

It's a shame so much of this was shot against green screen. Reminded me of Justice League or Cap 4 where you could really see the movie's seams and it's patchwork nature. The car chases in particular were rough, felt like a video game with them being entirely CGI. None of the outdoor scenes looked like they were actually shot outside.

I still can't get over the fact this was shot four years ago during COVID. What were they doing behind the scenes that needed that long? Reshoots don't take that many years to coordinate and film.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Evans best movie to date, trims away the excess of his Raid movies but maintains the dynamic camerawork and ballistic action, while the story is simple and tight, making for an adrenaline fueled experience.

8.5/10

 

[kguillou]

This movie was nuts and I got a real kick out of it. Its not the Raid but damn Evans is so damn dynamic with his directing and camera movements, he shoots action better than 90% of other action directors these days.

Some of it was a LITTLE much and over the top violent but this was a visceral thrill ride.

I also just LOVED the look of the film. It felt very graphic novel-y and I loved that.

Solid 8/10

 

[Da-Scribe]

This should’ve been a mini series. There’s a lot going on that doesn’t get time to breathe. Probably my least favorite of his films, but still a better action film than most. Not bad, just not up to par for this director.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Yeah I liked this and it was absolutely insane but when compared to the Raid films and Gangs of London, this really fell short for me. I think because what make those other projects work is how real they feel at times. They’re insanely violent (the the second Raid film gets a tad ridiculous at times) but they don’t quite go into video game territory like this did. Once you hit the nightclub scene it feels like the heroes are just getting swarmed by faceless enemies who are easily dispatched by whatever weapons happen to be lying around. I don’t know what the body count is in this movie but it feels like Tom Hardy killed like 100 people by the end. And it also seems like every gun is a fully automatic weapon lol.

That said, I did really enjoy it and it was good to see THIS Tom Hardy again. I feel like I haven’t seen this guy since Fury Road. I hate him in the Venom movies and I found him insufferable in that Bikeriders movie but I really enjoyed his sketchy badass sociopathic cop here. I also really liked Jessie Mei Li as the young “good” cop. I hope this opens some doors for her, career-wise because she’s great.

I liked Charlie and Mia but I feel like we needed more of their backstory because as critical as they are to the plot, we don’t get to know them very well. When Mia goes all John Wick with a meat cleaver it’s super cool but it’s also like, “Whoa what? Is she some sort of super assassin?” I wanted to know more about her but we don’t get it. Also, the blond assassin was super cool.

Also, the film is set in a fictional US city but it doesn’t look like ANY city in the US lol. Like, I feel like the overstylized versions of Gotham in various movies look more like a normal US city than this does. Not a big deal but ya know.

Anyway, it’s a fun movie but it could have been a great movie if they had developed the characters a bit more and went a tad less crazy with some of the action.