Tom Hardy’s latest foray into film has seen a huge surge in engagement for Netflix. The streaming platform has gained a significant boost in subscribers since the release of Havoc. In this gritty action thriller, Hardy plays a jaded police man who is on a violent rescue mission.
With direction from Wales’ Gareth Evans, the film was shot almost entirely in Cardiff. The team behind the Netflix film told the BBC that they believe it will “put Wales on the map” for filmmakers across the world. According to Netflix and Creative Wales, Havoc is the biggest feature film to be shot entirely in Wales, with post production also completed in Cardiff. On its productions in Wales, which also includes Sex Education, Netflix said it had generated more than £200m for the UK economy since 2020. Alongside Hardy, the film stars Jessie Mei Li, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker, Narges Rashidi and Luis Guzmán.
The film’s plot follows Walker’s (Hardy) involvement in a drug deal gone wrong.
However, critics have given the film some pretty scathing reviews with Kevin Maher of the Times saying: “Evans is a film-maker with an instinctive understanding of frame space (The Raid is a joyful camera ballet), but he seems constrained here. As a screenwriter he leaves no cliché unloved.”
He awarded it two out of five stars.
Peter Debruge of Variety said: “A clichéd and highly disorganized crime movie in which Evans — who can direct the hell out of an action scene, but struggles with anything remotely dramatic.”
The Guardians Peter Bradshaw said: “But frankly the action and the violence is too chaotic and almost meaningless and the CGI-Gotham-type cityscape where the drama takes place feels too artificial to me.”
He awarded two out of five stars.
Opposingly, the Telegraph awarded the film with four out of five stars.
Its chief film critic Robbie Collin said: “If today’s audiences throw their snacks in the air at the mere sight of a Minecraft chicken, they might well end up tearing auditoriums apart after exposure to the sustained adrenalised mayhem in this new underworld thriller from Gareth Evans.
“Tom Hardy has a blast in this jaw-dropping shoot-em-up.”