Havoc (2005)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Nani V

  
  Eh, this movie was kinda stupid and the characters were annoying...they got what they deserved.

• Nicki M

  
  Good, not great. I have to give Anne Hathaway credit for playing away from type, though, and doing a good job of it. i would have liked the ending to be not quite so abrupt.

• Ping C

  
  A cheap exploitation movie made cheaply, and it shows - repeatedly. It tries *so* hard to be meaningful and insightful and yet, but it ultimately presents scenes that shock to keep the viewers' attention. It's not Anne Hathaway's shining moment, either - and this is… More
  A cheap exploitation movie made cheaply, and it shows - repeatedly. It tries *so* hard to be meaningful and insightful and yet, but it ultimately presents scenes that shock to keep the viewers' attention. It's not Anne Hathaway's shining moment, either - and this is in spite of several topless and semi-topless scenes. Boring at best and ignorant and somewhat racist at worst. Watch the 'highlights' on Mr. Skin and skip this movie.

• Leigh R

  
  WOW!!! Crazy...

• danny d

  
  basically "kids" or "mi vida loca" for a new generation. more sensual than i was expecting, and pretty silly and even a bit trashy. much like its predecessors in this sub-genre. not a waste of time because it was interesting from a sociological perspective, but… More
  basically "kids" or "mi vida loca" for a new generation. more sensual than i was expecting, and pretty silly and even a bit trashy. much like its predecessors in this sub-genre. not a waste of time because it was interesting from a sociological perspective, but nothing to recommend.

• Curtis L

  
  So obnoxious. The only good part was El Ray from planet terror played a coke dealer.

• Michael S

  
  An utterly annoying, abnoxious film about two well-off white girls who decide to mingle with Latino thugs, in the hope of experiencing, first hand, the gangsterisms thier exposed to everyday through the media. The only real redeeming quality of the film is Anne Hathaway and her… More
  An utterly annoying, abnoxious film about two well-off white girls who decide to mingle with Latino thugs, in the hope of experiencing, first hand, the gangsterisms thier exposed to everyday through the media. The only real redeeming quality of the film is Anne Hathaway and her displayed "assets," but they really don't make the film at all more tolerable. As a viewer, you'll really want to bitch-slap these brats back to reality, but since you can't, you'll have to endure a rather aggravating 90 minutes.

• Luke B

  
  With a fantastic cast of the best young talent around and a script from the Academy Award winning writer of Traffic what could possibly go wrong? Well for starters the film can centre around some idiotic twats who can annoy you for the 90 minutes. The trouble most of the actors has is… More
  With a fantastic cast of the best young talent around and a script from the Academy Award winning writer of Traffic what could possibly go wrong? Well for starters the film can centre around some idiotic twats who can annoy you for the 90 minutes. The trouble most of the actors has is that their characters are embarrassing which means their performances come off as such as the majority of them find it hard to reach a level between realistic satire to out and out parody. The rest of the cast are stereotyped latino gangsters. We don't care for any charcter as they constantly argue "You don't even know me" and then proceed to act like cut and paste offensive characters from movies past. The ending is just pure cinematic stupidity and just to keep our attention the females keep getting naked. I suppose it's a bit of a guilty delight in that you can enjoy laughing at the street gangster talk from white kids as well as a quick pace for those with low attention spans.

• Michael G

  
  This movie sucked, which is odd considering Stephen Gaghan's name is on it. There's nothing appealing about rich kids slumming it. The only highlight was seeing Anne Hathaway topless--but even then, she looked like an alien from certain angles.

• Dean M

  
  This drama is really shocking and controversial film I ever see. And this is the first time I ever see Anne Hathaway in a searing, sexy and utterly unexpected role.

• Mark A

  
  A bleak tale of some Valley kids who playact the gangsta lifestyle and get in over their heads when they clash with a genuine East-LA gang. Anne Hathaway is suitably conflicted as Allyson, whose home life consists of a recovering addict mother (Laura San Giacomo) and an absentee… More
  A bleak tale of some Valley kids who playact the gangsta lifestyle and get in over their heads when they clash with a genuine East-LA gang. Anne Hathaway is suitably conflicted as Allyson, whose home life consists of a recovering addict mother (Laura San Giacomo) and an absentee father (Michael Biehn), neither of whom seem inclined to give their daughter the love and protection that she needs. Freddy Rodriguez is frighteningly menacing as Hector, the gang's leader. A certain dread pervades throughout the film as one knows this is destined to end badly, and on that score, it does not disappoint. Bad things happen, but in a completely ambiguous fashion that leaves one without any sense of closure. It is frightening simply because the gangsta culture is so sanitized by Hollywood and the music industry, that many do not see the inherent dangers. This film attempts to highlight those dangers, but not as effectively as it might have done had the filmmakers given us a memorable closing scene. This just kind of fizzled out.

• Laurence C

  
  Los Angeles is a world the movies love to visit. Whether it be the glamourous, smokin' rich fantasy landscapes or the grim latino neighborhoods, it's safe to say the city of angels itself has inspired hundreds and hundreds of filmmakers to place their cameras in whatever… More
  Los Angeles is a world the movies love to visit. Whether it be the glamourous, smokin' rich fantasy landscapes or the grim latino neighborhoods, it's safe to say the city of angels itself has inspired hundreds and hundreds of filmmakers to place their cameras in whatever part of town textures their story the best. In Havoc, director Barbara Kopple goes back and forth between the two aforementionned microclimates with mostly successful results... but in the end, it's not her directorial hand you'll be remembering, but the very good performances she is able to draw from Bijou Phillips, Freddy Rodriguez and especially Anne Hathaway. It's not a bad thing per se, having a couple of splendid performers overshadow your actual film, but one wishes this Thirteen-like downwards spiral made good use of all the unexpected star turns in its hands instead of merely going through the motions behind them. Kopple can stage interminable streaks of authentic establishing shots all she wants, I still won't be willing to slap everything that's happening with a 'credible' label. You see, Havoc is mostly satisfied in telling ''rich'n'bored white girls flee their comfortable suburbs to get a taste of all the dangerous downtown experience they can get''. It's not a foolish statement (and sadly, heaven knows it's all true), but it seems like this gritty plunge into these insecure though reckless lives isn't bothered to go very deep. Perhaps it's because of the short 86-minute running time (which nevertheless feels like 110), but I was personally dissapointed to see that the only character motives Stephen Gaghan's screenplay provides is something along the lines of ''girl has distant parents, etc''. And by making some key roles speak out loud about what they are & how they feel & why they act this way and yada yada yada, Gaghan ends up speaking about his characters much more than speaking through them. The situations seem real, but the suffering is artificial. Throughout the film, I felt more emotionally disconnected from what was going on than not, and just like Matt O'Leary's filmmaker character and his weird docu-drama subplot, I absorbed nearly everything on an intellectual level. For a film meant to make us connect with the ones in who chose that dangerous lifestyle, it is mostly a failure in approach. If there are (and more than just occasionally) electrical sparks flying from the screen during Havoc, it must to be because of some of the performers are resolutely in ass-kicking mode. We all know by now that Anne Hathaway can be one hell of an actress when she's not trapped in a lightweight piece of Hollywood crap (that's thanks to Jonathan Demme's spellbinding Rachel Getting Married), but I truly think that confused but clever Allison Lang was her first great role back in 2005. If I didn't quite buy her at first, it's because she suggests just the right amount of insecurity under her tough-girl allure and just the right amount of rebellion under those wondrous chesnut eyes. It's not a coincidence that they sparkle a whole damn lot in Havoc, especially in the scenes she shares with the threatening (though unequestionably intriguing) role that Freddy Rodriguez embodies so well. Also, with less screentime but just as much striking scenes as her co-star, Bijou Phillips' perfect line delivery and body language was almost enough to drive me to tears. The supporting performers, though, don't fare quite as well. It might be because they, too, sport a cooler-than-thou wigger aura, but even the reliably terrific Joseph Gordon-Levitt is mostly unconvincing here. And that's to say nothing of Mike Vogel's so-so take on the deeply irritating white-gangsta-from-hell part. But I am willing to forgive a lot of Havoc's flaws for its uncompromising vision of a universe films rarely visit with this little bullshit. It's a raw, tense, erotic and at times arresting behavioral observation, and if the delivery is downright phony at times, you can put your eyes on three magnetic and sincere performances if you weren't already doing so. Despite a rocky start and a rather abrupt conclusion, Havoc has a solid 40 minutes that knock it out of the park, almost entirely validating its existence. You might wanna see it.

• Chosen 7

  
  Good film, good cast & performances.

• Kevin L

  
  Yeah this was one of those movies that I wanted to thow up after watching it. The story was about two ubran girls(one of they is played by the amazing Anne Hathaway).These two young girls get caught up in the world of Latino gangsters and drugs. All the dangers that come with it.… More
  Yeah this was one of those movies that I wanted to thow up after watching it. The story was about two ubran girls(one of they is played by the amazing Anne Hathaway).These two young girls get caught up in the world of Latino gangsters and drugs. All the dangers that come with it. I think this movie was trying to be all hip and cool. However it failed on almost every level! The characters were lame,the same can be said about the dialogue . The story was entertaining at times,but nothing that we havent seen before. This gangster shit aint happn in my home ever again.Oh and by the way Anne Hathaway is nude in this movie! Yeah you heard me right she is in her birthday suit,for this piece of shit! Hathway just lost some respect in my book, she could have at least done the nudity in a film that is worth seeing! Come on!! Anyway as you can tell I hated this movie and if you come across a copy do you and the rest of the world a favor a destroy it! Hector: [to Allison] I know everything about you. Yeah, I can see right through you. Everything to you is a fucking game. You ain't real. There's nothing real about you. Your talk ain't real, Your walk ain't real, the way you dress ain't real. You don't even copy it from the real thing, you fucking get it from the TV.

• Sunil J

  
  Anne Hathaway proves that she can get down and dirty and still be likeable, Kinda cool.

• Leo L

  
  This film is all right.

• Adam M

  
  Good drama about a teenage girls coming-of-age.Its quite gritty and very tense in places and Anne Hathaway gives a great performance.

• Wu C

  
  Extra star cause we see Hathaway's assets.

Read all 18 featured audience ratings