Distributed by

20th Century Fox

Cat.no: 04130 DVD

Cert: 12

Running time: 102 minutes

Year: 1996

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 24 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: 11 languages available

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Making Of "Chain Reaction"

Director:

Andrew Davis (Chain Reaction, The Fugitive, Nico: Above the Law, A Perfect Murder, Under Siege)

Producer:

Arne L. Schmidt and Andrew Davis

Screenplay:

J.E. Lawton and Michael Bortman

Music:

Jerry Goldsmith

Cast:

Eddie Kasalivich: Keanu Reeves (Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Chain Reaction, Devil's Advocate, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Feeling Minnesota, Freaked, I Love You To Death, Johnny Mnemonic, The Last Time I Committed Suicide, Little Buddha, The Matrix, Much Ado About Nothing, My Own Private Idaho, Parenthood, Point Break, Speed, Tune in Tomorrow..., A Walk in the Clouds)
Paul Shannon: Morgan Freeman (Amistad, Chain Reaction, Clean and Sober, Deep Impact, Driving Miss Daisy, Glory, Hard Rain, Kiss The Girls, Moll Flanders, Outbreak, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Seven, The Shawshank Redemption, Unforgiven)
Dr. Lily Sinclair: Rachel Weisz (Amy Foster, Chain Reaction, Going All the Way, I Want You, The Land Girls, The Mummy, Stealing Beauty, TV: My Summer with Des)
Lyman Earl Collier: Brian Cox (The Boxer, Chain Reaction, Desperate Measures, Hidden Agenda, Iron Will, Kiss The Girls, Manhunter, Rob Roy, TV: Inspector Morse, Sharpe)

---

However, someone doesn't like it because the whole plant gets sabotaged and explodes just as machinist Eddie Kasalivich (Keanu Reeves) gets on his bike and is about to leave. He's already dropped off the girl at home who becomes his love interest - physicist Dr. Lily Sinclair (Rachel Weisz) - so she doesn't get to witness the result, but who could be behind it? Is it bureaucrat Paul Shannon (Morgan Freeman) who may or may not be on their side, or his colleague Lyman Earl Collier (Brian Cox) ? Hmmm... tough choice. Who, in the past few years has made a career out of good guys and who bad?

Everyone's under suspicion particularly Eddie because he blew up the lab at the placed where he studied as an experiment went wrong. FBI Agents Mulder and Scul..., I mean Ford (Fred Ward) and Doyle (Kevin Dunn) want to know.

Following an impressive explosion scene as Eddie escapes, things go rapidly downhill from here. The minute he falls off, the explosion suddenly goes no further and he comes away unscathed. There's nothing else that goes on in this film that we haven't see before so you may as well stop at that point.

If you continue, you'll see endless chase scenes, zero entertainment or suspense, poor acting (even from the usually-reliable Freeman and Cox, who just look bored throughout) and nothing unexpected.

The image is framed at the original cinema ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphic, but lacks impact, is a bit grainy at times and has a few flecks on the print. The average bitrate is a good 6.41Mb/s, often hovering around the 7Mb/s mark.

The sound is better, with explosions sounding very good, but any sort of action is few and far between so don't come as often as they should.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages and Subtitles :

Making Of "Chain Reaction" :

Director Andrew Davis says his piece about how he allowed the actors to improvise a great deal and didn't storyboard the film as one usually would. Perhaps that explains what a mess it turns out to be.

Menu :

Overall, this is one film that shouldn't have been made full-stop. Andrew Davis is the opposite of King Midas: everything he touches turns to (expletive deleted) and that also goes for The Fugitive and Under Siege.

If you did like it though, try to get it at a second-hand-type price and not the full twenty notes.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.