FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
gridoon2018
A slice-of-life about privileged, bored, hedonistic white kids who want a taste of street/gang life but get more than they bargained for is clichéd movie material by now, and "Havoc" is too short to develop the theme with much depth, but it has a harsh immediacy that probably comes from director Barbara Kopple's documentary background, and you can't take your eyes off it for a second. Anne Hathaway lets it all out (literally) in her breakthrough adult performance, and she is incredibly sexy. **1/2 out of 4.
hjames-97822
And it is...Bad. Really, really bad.If I were Anne Hathaway's parents I would be embarrassed to ever see my grown child performing in such a manner. Honestly, if what she wanted to do was shed her Disney image, she succeeded and in spades. Of course, I was personally embarrassed for her when I saw her in Love and Other Drugs. But that's another story.No spoilers from me this time. It's all out there to see and read about right here. Totally useless, gratuitous sex and violence scenes. Just boring, really. Directors have dumped so much of this stuff on us over the past 15 or 20 years I just really am tired of it. How much longer can we be expected to pay $9.00 for a matinée ticket plus snacks to see some guy's manicured butt and the bare breasts of any number of interchangeable white women? Sex is nothing you need real training for. Billions of people have it billions of times a day. The planet is awash in bodily fluids. How many more times can I be told an integral part of storytelling is a close up of some man's chest hair growing around his nipples. Or watching an Anne Hathaway type shove her face between his legs in faux oral sex? I've just had enough.I will go so far as to say that the Latino actors in this film sizzle with a far, far more genuine sex appeal than Ms. Hathaway or any of her female counterparts. Please start making films again. Please stop relegating me to a voyeuristic peanut gallery where I am made to feel like I am in a peep show arcade. Please stop catering to the lowest possible brainless members of your audience. Not all of us are Judd Apatow aging frat boy groupies who don't care.I long for a really great story. I am tired of being shocked. Make me cry for a change. It may be enhanced if the Anne Hathaways and her ilk (as well as her many male counterparts) consider staying dressed. For once.
I B
Havoc is a generic little film which was even screened at several film festivals. Though it didn't receive a theatrical release in America. It aims to show the differences between two classes of L.A. society, here represented by wealthy teens and latino drug dealers. In some ways this approach is mishandled and in the end the characters seem like unpleasant neurotic people. Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips play the two teens who think they're dissatisfied with their lives, so they adopt hip hop culture and go looking for adventure in a less secure part of the city. Predictably, they get mixed up in situations that they didn't expect. Hathaway replaced Mandy Moore for the role of Allison Lang after Moore dropped out of the project. Havoc aims to show the conflicts which exist in modern American society, but it goes into unnecessary territory. I felt there was no need for all the sex in the film. The characters also come off as rather stereotypical. Hathaway seems like the only one who was really giving a performance. To my surprise Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a part, though a minor one. The direction by Barbara Kopple is suitable but uninspired, and clearly influenced by American Beauty (1999) and Traffic (2000). In conclusion, Havoc is a passable film. There's little about it that's worth discussing, and it's not really surprising that the two things which drew attention to the picture are Hathaway's acting and her partial nude scenes.
cosmeltini
If you've grown up in suburbia, you've known kids who act this way.Before watching the movie I wasn't expecting the turns it took, all in all it was pretty good. Incredibly gratifying to see wiggers and wannabes get mixed in with the real deal. The shallow parents and the shallow teens are fairly true to life, if you're familiar with the Palisades.The film isn't necessarily about teaching lessons or any after school special for sure, Anne Hathaway is not all T n A in this movie like someone else commented, if that's all you remember then you've got problems. Don't get me wrong, there are lessons that can be learned through the character's experience, however it isn't the focus. It's about an experience this main character needed, in order to get out of her Palisades bubble and finally grow up.
