CHAIN REACTION
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Fox)
Directed by Andrew Davis
Written by Michael Bortman and J. F. Lawton
Cast Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward,
Kevin Dunn, Brian Cox, Joanna Cassidy
MPAA Rating "PG-13"
Running Time 100 minutes
Reviewed at Six Forks Station Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (2AUG96)
==
Director Andrew Davis reworks his FUGITIVE formula and the results are about as exciting as his last film-- the dreadful comedy STEAL BIG, STEAL LITTLE-- was funny. Keanu "I'd rather play music than play another action hero" Reeves is the grad student on the run, who, along with his superfluous sidekick (Rachel Weisz), has been framed for a sabotaged science experiment that vaporized eight Chicago city blocks. (The mushroom-cloud explosion is a knock-out and easily the best part of the movie. Or, as one audience member succinctly summed it up: "whoa.") False information implicates their involvement and boy and girl are soon on the run, fleeing over open drawbridges, across icy lakes, and through the corridors of power at a top-secret, underground energy facility. Aiding and abetting is the team's shady mentor, played in an excellent-but-so- what performance by Morgan Freeman. (Brit Brian Cox is also about, as the behind-the-scenes bad guy. He has some fun fiddling with a Southern accent.) Unfunny, overscored, and without a single shred of suspense, CHAIN REACTION is *the* summer movie to walk out on. If you make it to the end, a mess of cross-cutting involving another imminent explosion, you'll hear somebody say "I guess it's time to go." Heed that warning.
Grade: D+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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