Old Stuff
Chain Reaction (1996)
Directed by Andrew Davis
Keanu Reeves is grungy, funny looking (I know, people in glass houses shouldn't blah, blah, blah) and as bright as a 20 Watt light bulb. Why is this guy a sex symbol? Personally, I think he's entertaining, after all, he does for "drama" what Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal do for action films. He's a riot! He even runs funny -- like a big, dopey Labrador Retriever at the beach -- he's just all over the fucking place! Sorta like the plot for "Chain Reaction".
I had no idea what was going on in this "Three Days of the Condor" meets "The Saint" bomb. Not that I cared. The film was delivering stinky dialogue and dumb characterizations at breakneck speed. This is one of those movies that keeps crucial moments in tight close-up because if you could step back and see the whole picture, you'd know just how ludicrous the situation really is. Like the scene where the omnipresent police (is Chicago really such a police-state? Keanu -- or as we like to call him here at HO, "Canoe" -- couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a cop) have him trapped on an open drawbridge. Canoe brilliantly escapes the cops with the aid of close-ups. He's plainly in sight but the logic here must be that as long as the cops are out of the camera frame, they can't see the stealthy Canoe . He gets away, not through an act of bravery or luck, but because he has apparently willed himself into invisibility, just like a three year old child!
As far as I could piece it together, "Chain Reaction" is about a goofy, motorcycle-riding machinist (Keanu Reeves) who is part of a team of scientists working on a hydrogen liberation project or in other words, the water for fuel dream. The head of funding for this noble endeavor is a cigar-chomping Morgan Freeman. The problem seems to be that Freeman is also a CIA-ish henchman who is keeping his cohorts updated on the projects progress. When Canoe finds the "frequency" (Whatever that means, Kenneth) and this panacea of cheap energy is safely unleashed, a squad of hitmen are dispatched from bad-guy central. They wack the top scientist and kidnap another one before blowing the whole laboratory sky-high (why they did this, I was still none-too-sure even as the end credits were rolling). The ultra-dumb and slow G-men investigating the wreckage are being fed a bunch of bogus clues and come to believe that dimwit Canoe and some British bar bim he works with are responsible. These two nimrods go on the lam to figure out who is trying to frame them and why.
But really the blame for their predicament rests squarely on the shoulders of director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive). What's the opposite of style? Generic? Plain? That's how this guy directs his films. I wonder what goes on in his head when he watches a Coen brother's film. It must baffle him. His idea of directing seems to be coverage. He shoots his scenes from every angle conceivable then gets cutaways of every little action no matter how insignificant, then assembles it all in a plodding, unimaginative, linear wreck. Instead of movies, Andrew Davis should consider directing football or baseball coverage. "Chain Reaction" doesn't even stand out as a good movie for MST3K night with your friends. It's not even bad enough to be good. -- Rating: $1.06
Tom Graney -- copyright 1997 Hollywood Outsider