Title – Havoc (2025)

Director – Gareth Evans (The Raid)

Cast – Tom Hardy, Jessie Mei Li, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker

Plot – Grizzled detective Walker (Hardy) is caught up in a violent mob war in the lead up to the festive season, forcing him into a battle of life and death as he tries to navigate a city overrun by criminals and corrupt officials.  

“You’re gonna need a magic wand to clean this up”

Review by Eddie on 30/04/2025

Filmed all the way back in 2021, the long gestating team up of Tom Hardy and The Raid 1 & 2 mastermind Gareth Evans has finally found its way into the Netflix catalogue but while this mindless action/thriller has its moments, the patient wait feels as though it hasn’t been worth it.

Announcing himself in a big way with his Indonesian set hand to hand heavy action extravaganzas, Evans had quickly put himself into a certain level of expectation from film fans across the globe that he hasn’t been able to live up to yet with his Netflix horror The Apostle and now this star-studded genre flick and it’s a shame this seemingly perfect match-up with Hardy wasn’t able to tap into the same level of creativity or energy that Evans delivered in the two Raid films or the first season of cult British crime show Gangs of London.

Set in an unnamed US city that feels as though its a mix of 1970’s New York and a Max Payne/neo-noir rundown capital, Havoc never really truly lives up to its title as we follow Hardy’s grizzled police detective Walker over a couple of chaotic days and nights in the lead up to the Xmas period as he gets caught up in a violent gang war and the kidnapping of a politicians estranged son.

As simplistic of a set-up as you’re likely to get and absolutely the type of narrative you would have seen launching frequently in cinemas across the 80’s and 90’s, Havoc was always going to live and die off its action beats and character interactions with Evan’s efforts here likely to disappoint viewers heading into the experience expecting more Raid and Gangs of London like carnage that is here mostly replaced by CGI heavy shootouts and blood squib laced claret spilling that is incessantly full on and is unable to cover up the fact much of Havoc’s human players are mere cardboard cut-outs of genre tropes and barely fleshed out beyond the barebones basics.

Opening up with an utterly bizarre computer game like car chase that sets the tone for things to come, Havoc’s relatively brief 100 minute running time spends a lot of time on mostly uninteresting conversations and character movements that are then intercut by two key action segments that showcase a bit of life and glimpses into what might have been but mostly feel as though paint by numbers set pieces that appear to be victims of a film that lost the passion over time when it faced reshoots and forced shutdowns.

The simple premise of Walker battling his way through a crime-riddled city to save souls and stay alive really does on paper seem to suggest a rollicking good time but what we’re left with here as a finished product is a pale imitation of what Evans has delivered to great effect in the past with Havoc saved from outright mediocrity by Hardy’s typically unhinged central presence and some brief action chaos that help raise the pulse of a film that promised so much and delivered the bare minimum.

Final Say –

An unfortunately muted collaboration between action kingpins Gareth Evans and Tom Hardy, Havoc’s unfortunate run to getting to release ends with a whimper not a bang, creating a sense of missed opportunity for all involved including the willing and ready audience who waited with bated breath for this seemingly dream pairing of creatives.

3 washing machines out of 5