Havoc

Directed by Gareth Evans, Havoc follows a grizzled police officer (Tom Hardy’s Patrick Walker) as he finds himself caught in the middle of an increasingly violent turf war. Filmmaker Evans, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a perpetually erratic yet mostly watchable endeavor that’s elevated by its gritty central performance and smattering of engrossing sequences, as, in terms of the latter, Evans punctuates the proceedings with a series of exceedingly (and gleefully) over-the-top action set-pieces that remain a continuing highlight – with this particularly true of a mid-movie massacre set within a crowded nightclub. It is, as such, relatively easy to overlook the garish, overly computer-generated atmosphere and Evans’ ongoing reliance on some of the hoariest clichés the cop-movie genre has to offer, which effectively allows Havoc, by the time the incredibly violent (and satisfying) finale rolls around, to cement its place as one of the more memorable (and brutal) actioners to come around in quite some time.

*** out of ****