Chaos

PLOT:

During a hostage incident on a bridge, detective York accidentally shoots and kills the hostage, and detective Conners (Jason Statham), his partner, shoots the criminal. York is fired, and Conners suspended.

Months later, Lorenz (Wesley Snipes) and four other criminals take hostages in a bank and demand to negotiate with Conners, who is reinstated for that purpose, but put under the surveillance of a new partner, young inspector Dekker (Ryan Phillippe). Conners shuts power down to open the doors and let a SWAT unit in, but there is an explosion, and the criminals flee using the ensuing panic and chaos.

A TV camera had caught a shot of one of the criminals, who is arrested together with his girlfriend at her home, where banknotes are found with a scent used to mark evidence collected by the police. Banknote serial numbers show that they were requested from evidence storage by inspector Callo, who had testified against York and Conners on the bridge incident, and is soon found shot dead in his home, in possession of incriminating evidence.

Dekker finds from surveillance cameras in the assaulted bank that a director’s computer had been used by the robbers. It turns out that they installed a virus to transfer one billion dollars to their accounts (less than 100 dollars from over 10 million accounts, so as not to rouse suspicions); this had not yet been noticed up till this point because one of the cameras (which are supposed to be focused at a fixed angle) is momentarily tilted down a little bit, which is visibly noticed during playback of the tapes. The author of the virus is identified as a programmer with criminal record, who is found dead at his home.

Dekker makes the bank robber who had been caught confess that Lorenz is the brother of the criminal Conners shot dead on the bridge and gives an address where he is to meet the two other robbers that night. The police suspects Lorenz wants to kill his accomplices, and indeed the house explodes, killing them together with Conners (who had entered to chase them).

Dekker is devastated but receives another call claiming to be from Lorenz, who eventually says Callo was insignificant in his plan. Dekker then finds that Callo’s signature requesting material from the evidence storage was forged and makes the officer who gave it away confess that Lorenz is actually York, who, outraged at his being fired, became a criminal. His cell phone is tracked, he is caught, and as he offers resistance is shot dead.

Finally, Dekker finds that a banknote he was given by Conners to pay a lunch is also scented, and realises that he was involved with York. Conners had survived the explosion he himself had triggered to kill his accomplices, and had put his police badge in the dead body of the criminal whose identity Lorenz had assumed, so as to pass as dead and run away. This is confirmed by Dekker as he searches Conners’s house and finds incriminating evidence. He goes to an airport to arrest Conners before he escapes, but Conners phones him, compliments him on his sagacity, and escapes.

REVIEW:

This is one of those films that has been on my list, but for some reason or another keeps getting pushed down. finally, I got the chance to watch it tonight, and if I do say so myself, while not my type of film, it was worth the wait.

I don’t know much about chaos theory, and I don’t pretend to understand it. There is a scene in here where Ryan Phillippe attempts to explain it to Jason Statham and it just went over my head. The concept escapes me, is wha I’m trying to say, but in the context of this flick, I totally get it.

The good…an excellent cast and story. Wesley Snipes makes a better villain than you would think. Jason Statham as the rugged, suspended detective was perfect. The final twist at the end really makes the film worth watching. Personally, I enjoyed not seeing the “hero” win for once.

The bad..I wasn’t really crazy about Ryan Phillippe. I’m not sure if it was him or his character, but something just didn’t sit right there. The relationship between he and Statham is getting a bit overused these days. That is to say the young cop and the veteran who bends and/or breaks the rules. I realize this was supposed to be one of those serious cop drama/action/thriller films, but it could have seriously done with some sort of comic relief just to lighten things up. Something like a funny rookie cop or something like that would have been nice.

You don’t have to know about the inner workings of chaos theory to like this film, but I would imagine it would help. I imagined this flick being one of those overrated action dramas that relies more on the drama and less on the action. For the most part, I was right, but the drama isn’t all heavy, but rather it frames the action and sets up for a nice picture. Chaos is worth a viewing or two no matter what your mood is.

4 out of 5 stars

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