The director of Pulp Fiction, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and Inglourious Basterds isn’t exactly the biggest Netflix fan. In fact, in 2017, he told Deadline that streaming movies were so forgettable that “it’s almost like they don’t even exist.” So when Quentin Tarantino recently gave a shoutout to Gareth Evans’ Havoc, fans were thrilled but also a little confused. Did that Quentin Tarantino—the man who once compared streaming tech to emotional apathy—really say something nice about a Netflix original?
On the Video Archives podcast, a user believed to be QT casually dropped: “Who has seen the Netflix movie Chaos directed [by] the guy who did The Raid? It’s pretty f*ing bad-ass.” Of course, fans were quick to correct him: the movie’s not called Chaos. It’s Havoc. But really, who’s going to nitpick titles when Tarantino is out here hyping up Netflix content?
Of course, Havoc, starring Tom Hardy, Jessie Mei Li, Forest Whitaker, and Timothy Olyphant, isn’t your run-of-the-mill algorithm-friendly action filler. It’s a Gareth Evans movie. That’s the same guy behind The Raid – the martial arts/action movie that reinvented hallway fights. If you’ve seen that film, you already know what you’re in for. Evans brings the same kinetic camera work (captured using ARRI Alexa Mini LF cameras paired with Zeiss Supreme Prime lenses) and gritty style to Havoc, with blood-spattered corridors, sweeping tracking shots, and just enough monochrome flare to make it feel like a ‘70s exploitation flick shot through a digital lens.
The plot follows a bruised detective (played by Hardy) who has to punch and shoot his way through an entire city’s criminal underbelly to save a politician’s estranged son—and along the way, uncovers a sprawling web of corruption. Sounds familiar? It should. But that’s kind of the point.
Critics haven’t been particularly generous, though. Havoc holds a 63% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviews calling it “an action cliché” and saying “we’ve seen it all before, and done better.” The audience score is even harsher, sitting at a dismal 36%. Ouch.
But that doesn’t seem to bother QT. And should it? His love for over-the-top genre films is what gave us Kill Bill, a revenge saga soaked in blood, blade fights, and cinematic style over substance. Havoc fits right in with the kind of raw, no-frills action that clearly still gets Quentin Tarantino’s pulse going.
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