My quick rating – 6.3/10. Gareth Evans, best known for The Raid films, brings his signature brand of gritty, unrelenting action to Havoc, a bullet-riddled crime thriller anchored by a tough-as-nails performance from Tom Hardy. Set in a city overrun with corruption and fueled by the aftermath of a drug deal gone catastrophically wrong, Havoc delivers exactly what its title promises—chaos, violence, and a relentless pace from start to finish.
Hardy plays Walker, a weathered detective trudging through layers of rot in the criminal underworld as he attempts to rescue a kidnapped politician’s son. What follows is an urban warzone of bone-crunching brawls, double-crosses, and shootouts that seem to defy the very concept of ammunition limits. One barfight in particular stands out—not just for its sheer brutality, but for its crisp, kinetic choreography. Evans knows how to film a fight, and it shows.
There’s barely a clean hand in sight. Corruption is endemic, infecting the police, the politicians, and the gangs alike. Forest Whitaker gives a reliably strong performance as the slippery politician, and Timothy Olyphant steps up to play a smarmy antagonist, though calling anyone a “bad guy” here is almost beside the point. It’s moral sludge all the way down.
Among the few glimmers of decency are Jessie Mei Li’s young officer Ellie—perhaps the film’s only character who doesn’t seem for sale—and Mia, played with punchy energy by Quelin Sepulveda. Mia is no passive damsel; she’s throwing fists and challenging the power dynamics every step of the way.
The body count here rivals John Wick, and while some of the kills are a bit over-the-top (full clips emptied into single targets), the film leans into the mayhem unapologetically. If anything, it seems aware of its genre excesses. Guns rarely run dry, but at least characters are shown scavenging for new weapons, a nice nod to realism amid the carnage. The blood flows freely, sometimes too freely. A few scenes betray the use of CGI splatter when practical effects must’ve run dry.
What Havoc lacks in wit (don’t expect memorable one-liners or quippy banter), it makes up for in sheer commitment to the mood. It plays it straight, and that works in its favor. This is a dirty, grimy crime flick that doesn’t pretend to be profound. It simply loads the magazine, punches the clock, and goes to war.
While it doesn’t hit the highs of Evans’ earlier masterpieces, Havoc is a worthy entry into the gritty action canon. It’s not aiming for awards—it’s aiming for your adrenal glands. And it hits more often than it misses.
Bloody, relentless, and morally bankrupt, Havoc is a solid, no-frills action ride with enough brutal set pieces to satisfy fans of the genre. Just don’t come looking for redemption—or reloads.
This one is exclusive to Netflix right now.