Chaos (2005)

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This well-constructed action film seeks to apply the construct of "chaos theory," including the so-called jerk systems to a perfectly conceived crime in a bank heist of one billion dollars.The ideas of Edward Norton Lorenz and James Gleick are generally described in a film that is filled with plot twists and surprises. The biggest shock to the audience comes in the final minutes at the airport, where the mastermind who has created the chaos reveals the grand scheme. The intelligent crooks are the most noteworthy part of the film, with the general police staff to be the ordinary jerks who are clueless.The principal relationship is that of an experienced Seattle police detective Quentin Conners (Jason Statham) and the young rookie named Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe). The film is a smorgasbord of interesting characters and even devises a romantic subplot between Conners and Teddy Galloway (Justine Waddell).While serving a suspension for misconduct when a hostage was inadvertently killed by his partner named York, Conners is called back to duty during the bank heist in downtown Seattle. It is there that the film begins its long and complex journey towards the truth.SPOILER FOLLOWS: The double twist at the end is a fascinating one in which it is revealed the the criminal involved in the bank heist was York, the former partner of Conners. But the second revelation is the true stunner: Conners himself was the mastermind who, despite the intelligence of his young partner, outfoxes everyone with the perfect crime.Statham is great in the role of Conners, and there are some extremely well-executed action sequences. But it is the character developments and the surprising plot elements that make "Chaos" a fast-paced film that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A twisty-turny bank heist thriller that thinks its better than it is. In this respect, CHAOS is not dissimilar to Spike Lee's INSIDE MAN, although I think this film has the edge: it just gets on with telling the story rather than faffing around with overdone stylisation. Despite the attempts to link the plot and characters to chaos theory, this is very much a routine thriller, and far from the best that the 'heist' genre has to offer (for that, try the Gene Hackman film of the same name). I enjoyed it for the script, which, when it isn't theorising or springing twists on the viewer, is actually fairly entertaining.Jason Statham headlines proceedings as a tough cop. It's not a new role for the actor, but if you can get past his dodgy American accent, he's actually rather good. It makes a nice change from him kicking heads in and I think there's a half-decent actor buried within him somewhere. The real surprise, though, is Ryan Phillippe, who turns out to be very good as Statham's by-the-book partner. I've despised Philippe in everything from WAY OF THE GUN to CRUEL INTENTIONS, but he seems to have matured somewhere along the line and I believed in him here. Wesley Snipes is the third part of the triangle, and plays a stock wisecracking villain straight out of a B-movie.There are a couple of nice turns from supporting players, particularly those making up the cop team: Nicholas Lea (THE X-FILES) is excellent; Justine Waddell is just as good, and Henry Czerny ain't half bad either. This isn't really an action film, despite a couple of pretty decent chases, but the plot kept me watching. Not great maybe, but solid entertainment all the same.

Jason Statham plays Quentin Conners a suspended cop who is called back in to action when a criminal and his gang are holding hostages captive at a bank. The ring leader of the group Lorenz (Wesley Snipes) will only speak to Conners hence the reason for him being re-instated back in the force. The gang manage to escape from the bank and with the help of rookie officer Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillipe), Conners starts to conduct investigations on Lorenz and his gang.The start of the film is essentially Die Hard in a bank and I'm prepared to accept that it's a little clichéd at times, but once Conners begins his investigations the film does start to pick up. The narrative is constructed in such a way that the audience are pulled in one direction and then swiftly pulled into another direction. I'll say one thing for this film and that is that it keeps you guessing. For this very reason it's a film that is very easy to get into and due to a relatively swift pace the film never feels boring.The performances from the principal cast vary; Statham can do this sort of thing in his sleep and gives his usual tough-talking role and his dry delivery of dialogue always makes him an interesting person to watch on screen (even though he is rather limited as an actor). Statham does an OK job here and as mentioned he's always fun to watch. Snipes performance is adequate, but he lacks any real menace here and underplays his role almost to the point of indifference. The worst offender by far was Phillipe who gave a forgettable and wooden performance as the rookie officer - he never convinces and does drag the film down somewhat. The chemistry between Phillipe and Statham is also weak and again I blame Phillipe more for this than Statham. When watching this film, it sometimes felt like no-one's heart was really in it.Chaos has the requisite amount of twists and turns to keep the audience involved in the story - even though I feel that it was always trying to be a bit too clever and the over-plotting that we get here may end up causing mind overload. Ultimately, Chaos is hampered slightly by weak acting and a distinct lack of chemistry, but the story is strong enough to warrant at least one viewing.

There are some films that are basically the same story you've seen a hundred times, but are done in a way that just elevates them above the mediocre. Chaos is one of them. You can hate it for Jason Statham's (dubious) attempt at an American accent, or you can just ignore it and go along for the ride.Jason Statham and Ryan Phillippe play a couple of cops on the trail of Wesley Snipes, after he and a gang rob a bank. Or do they? There are many questions raised by the 'heist' and, although some have likened it to 'Inside Man' (another film about a bank heist) Chaos may start out predictable, but there are enough twists and turns along the way to keep it interesting.It'll never be a classic. It doesn't have the 'star power' to really make people take much notice of it. And, like I said, it's not a classic, but, if you're looking for some cops and robbers action with a few decent twists, you could probably do worse (like try and do an American accent when you're from London - seriously, they could have just made it so that Statham was a British guy who just so happened to work in the U.S.).