"Havoc (2005)"

Anne Hathaway
Bijou Phillips
Shiri Appleby
Michael Biehn
Joseph Gordon-Lewitt
Matt O’Leary
Freddie Rodriguez
Laura San Giancomo
Mike Vogel
Raymond Cruz
Alexis Dziena
Channing Tatum

Unrated           92min           2004

“Havoc (Unrated Version)” is about two friends who are done with playing it safe. When Allison (Hathaway) and Emily (Phillips) leave their rich suburb for a joyride through East L.A., they glimpse a frightening landscape of drugs, violence and gang brutality. Nut as their fear turns to infatuation, the friends find themselves seduced by a dark and dangerous world – where a pretty girl can get anything she wants… except a second chance.

Having seen a preview in a previous film I didn’t expect to see so much of Anne Hathaway. This is truly a departure from the squeaky Disney image. She showed that see could handle more mature subject matters and was ready to graduate from the children films. Although at times she does seem to be uncomfortable with unexplored facets of this role.

“Havoc (Unrated Version)” is a caricature of what would have happen but illustrates that there are worst things to fear than the boogeyman. Situations in this film are too easily solved or left open to the viewer’s interpretation. I think that it placed too much emphasis on the sexual nature and not enough on the characters development. It illustrated situations too black and white.

Even though it does have flaws it does what it set out to do…be entertaining and be a sort of cautionary tale. Showing that even with the sophistication of teenagers today they still have things to learn. Although they can emulate the “Hollywood” street life, the real life street is much more dangerous, complicated, and complex than they can imagine.

There are only special features for a DVD-ROM drive. It has movie previews for “The Purifiers”, “Refuse 2 Die”, and “11:14”.

I give it a 2/5 Gs.