Havoc (2025) Review!!

Synopsis – After a drug deal gone wrong, a bruised detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.

My Take – Before the John Wick franchise became a staple in pop culture, the ultra-violent Indonesian feature duo logy The Raid (2011) and its sequel, The Raid 2 (2014), were credited for changing the landscape of the action genre.

Though the films were outlined with fairly straightforward plots, writer-director Gareth Evans showcased such a remarkable grip on the breakneck pacing and presentation that it is impossible not to revel in its stylish and audacious action sequences.

His latest, which hit Netflix four days ago, after a few years of bouncing through development snags, industry work stoppages, and a round of re-shoots, is structured as a formulaic police-thriller where a messy chain of events unravels during Christmas time and involves corrupt cops, the mafia, sees drug deals go wrong, and a lot of people getting killed.

However, it delivers where it matters the most: the promised exaggerated action entertainment. Despite taking some time to get going, the moment it breaks loose, the film delivers wave after wave of hilariously over-the-top, comic over-kills and pure action mayhem with sets of inventive, thrilling choreography that makes it seem as if the cameras were bouncing off bodies and walls.

Landing somewhere between a B and C film along the lines of a straight to VOD stuff, but on steroids, dispensing chaos and devastation at every opportunity.

Yes, the overall results are far from perfect, as given their respective filmography, Tom Hardy joining forces with director Gareth Evans for a bloody action flick should have been much more than generic gangland stuff, but there is no denying how the film leaps to life whenever the bullets start flying.

Simply told, if you don’t mind raw, brutal action thrillers with limited substance, prepare for a wild ride.

Set in a dark and stylized city, the story follows Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy), a cynical lifer homicide detective burnt out by his bad decisions, that resulted in a failed marriage and corruption accusations, particularly for being on the take from real estate mogul Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), a gentrification profiteer looking to make New York City great again as a mayoral candidate.

However, his life descents into chaos on a particular night during the Christmas period when he walks into a blood bath, which includes the body of Tsui, the son of a notorious Triad boss (Yeo Yann Yann), and finds the image of Beaumont’s son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) and his girlfriend, Mia (Quelin Sepulveda), plastered over the CCTV images.

The couple, who along with their friends, not only recently stole a truckload of cocaine, but also outran a few members of Walker’s old dirty crew, including the menacing Vincent (Timothy Olyphant), by putting one in a coma after tossing a dryer full of the good stuff through the unmarked cop car’s windshield during the high-speed chase.

But instead of lying low, tried to unload the cocaine to the young gang of Triads. Believing that the two were in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the help of the help of a smart young rookie cop Ellie (Jessie Mei Li), Walker, is determined to somehow rescue the two from the bunch of horribly corrupt officers and the vengeful triad boss who is determined to make an example of them all.

As one would expect, director Evans is virtually unmatched in the field of staging savage show and beat-downs that seem chaotic but are obviously, actually very carefully blocked, and the film comes to life whenever he gets in touch with that aspect. Even the kinetic opening car chase, that becomes marginally less exciting after realizing that it clearly been put together entirely through CGI, makes for an exhilarating watch.

While some might call out this one as yet another quirky John Wick imitation, particularly as we know the story concocted here is mere scaffolding for the action. In the sense, if we take out the excessive combat scenes, there wouldn’t be much else to distinguish it from other direct-to-streaming punch-ups.

But director Evans at least, deserves credit for using a familiar underworld saga, and then goosed it with his specialty for exceptional brutality. Even when the plot feels somewhat overstuffed as it strains to cover a similar scale of narrative, with warring factions and constantly shifting motivations piling into a 107-minute runtime.

Leaving the only real question to be: how much collateral damage will Walker leave on his path to absolution? Through Walker’s journey, you can feel director Evans’ intention to imbue his film with more heart than we’ve seen before in his work. And it mostly lands, although a more stripped-back ensemble might have helped with his objective. Nevertheless, when it comes to his hyper kinetic action, few contemporary filmmakers do it better.

Performance wise, Tom Hardy wears the role comfortably and brings to life with the appropriate amount of gruff swagger and adrenaline-driven strength required to sell the narrative. As his side kick, Jessie Mei Li is charming and relatable as the bright-eyed young detective. Timothy Olyphant and Sunny Pang are also effectively menacing as two very different threats to Walker in his fight through the criminal underworld.

Forest Whitaker and Luiz Guzmán bring reliable veteran flavor to the proceedings. Justin Cornwell shines in the dramatic scenes, while Quelin Sepulveda sells her part of the action. Michelle Waterson is terrifying throughout that too without uttering a single word. Yeo Yann Yann is hauntingly magnetic as a mother driven by grief, being just restrained enough to keep her actions unpredictable. On the whole, ‘Havoc‘ is a hyper violent action thriller that delivers the desired gonzo entertainment, but nothing else.