(Credit: Amazon.com)
Directed by:
Barbara Kopple
Starring:
Anne Hathaway……….Allison
Bijou Phillips……….Emily
Shiri Appleby……….Amanda
Michael Biehn……….Stuart Lang
Joseph Gordon-Levitt……….Sam
Freddy RodrÃÂguez……….Hector
Laura San Giacomo……….Joanna Lang
Mike Vogel……….Toby
Raymond Cruz……….Chino
Alexis Dziena……….Sasha
Channing Tatum……….Nick
Johnny Vasquez……….Manuel
The Movie
TV has become very impressionable to todays youth, there’s no doubt about that. Every time a musician, actor or any other form of celebrity appears on our television with some sort of merchandise within days it becomes the new must have item be it a shirt, shoes or some sort of accessory. TV has the power to shape the country, and music channels are becoming more and more at the heart of pop culture of what’s “in” and what’s “out” with the now over powering constantly coveted 18-24 young adult demographic.
The past few years hip hop has become the hot ticket around the music industry with stars like 50 Cent reigning supreme on top the billboard charts. But the characters they personify in their videos is all our kids see, we all know that’s just an image and most of the mainstream musicians are a lot smarter than they appear on screen. However kids in most ways see it as a life style that’s “cool” and the only way to be like them and live like them is to re-enact what the songs tell them to. A sort of false sense of reality.
Havoc is about rich California trust fund kids who are bored… color me shocked. With their spare time they hang out living the gangsta life they’ve been shown on MTV with large amounts of “bling” low riders with over priced audio systems and rims that probably cost more than the ride. Wearing Roca Wear clothing with matching visors, drinking the finest brews and doing the best drugs around in their multi-room mansions with pool houses bigger than most low cost housing facilities. Life sure is tough living in all those gated communities isn’t it?
One night the teens take a drive to the slums of the city, when they reach east L.A. they try scoring drugs from some of the locals until Allison’s boyfriend tries to get his money back when he feels he’s been ripped off. Because when your buying illegal substances from shady characters in the projects the first thing that comes to mind is to question their business ethics. Allison and her best friend Emily are both getting tired of the same old routine and believe they want more, they want to live more dangerously. So they start to sneak off and hang out with the gang that they ran into the previous night. They’re tired of living a fake life and are looking for something that’s real, and with the 16th street gang they thinks they’ve found the answer. Only things begin to get too real for their own good.
Havoc opens up so many possibilities on where the story could go, and instead of choosing one path and really rolling with it the movie winds up running out of steam trying to keep everything going at once completely dwindling any solid message the movie may have had. Even the main characters revelations are poorly handled, that’s not a part of a movie that should be done wrong. In fact some movies can fail across the board but as long as the main characters transition from start to finish is believable and acceptable it can raise a movie from poor to mediocre. Which is what happens here with the acting, it’s good not great but still manages to make the images on screen slightly more interesting than they should have been.
With all of its flaws Havoc does have some parts that are interesting. Like Hathaway’s Allison character who is just having a rough time finding her own self image and thinks that just adapting to what ever is around her is easier, simpler and will make everyone happy. Hathaway drastic role change to avoid type casting is pretty clear in the movie and I hope she didn’t accept the role simply for that fact, I’m sure there are better adult themed movies that could have helped her shed the princess image than this.
Bijou Phillips’ character in the movie just wants to be like Allison, the cool chick everybody wants to be with and she would do anything to have that notoriety. Phillips’ pulls off a wonderful performance that more than likely will go unnoticed due to people checking the movie out solely to see some nudity from Hathaway. Freddie Rodriguez play the rough and tough Latino gang member Hector and what he’s given to work with is pretty minimum but he manages to elevate things slightly. It’s really a shame he wasn’t given more as his work on Six Feet Under shows just how talented the young star is.
If your going to check this out simply for Stephen Gaghan’s screenplay then your setting yourself up for a major disappointment. All the talent and brilliance he showed with his screenplay for Traffic show some light here but for the most part it’s one giant let down. Watching you’ll see that some where in this average movie is something bigger and better just wanting to break out only it never happens.
Score: 5/10
The Video
(Presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
A very well presented feature film with no flaws. Camera work and cinematography for the movie are top notch with every shot framed beautifully. and the transfer for the film translates the hard work of those involved with the movie very well on this DVD.
The Audio
(English 5.1, DTS, 2.0 stereo surround)
I have to admit, with an indy film like this the idea that it has three separate audio tracks is a bit much. Add the fact that the difference between the 5.1 and DTS is almost unrecognizable and it becomes clear one audio option would have done the trick. Still what’s here flows through nicely even though the surround speakers are used simply for the films sound track.
The Extras
Well, if you love trailers then this is the DVD for you since that’s all that seems to be included. First up is the Theatrical Trailer for Havoc then three trailers for the DVD releases of The Purifiers, 50 Cent: Refuse to Die and 11:14. A director or writer commentary track would have been greatly appreciated to see exactly what sort of message they were trying to get through with the film but there aren’t any here to help out on that front.
Score: 1/10
