We both look way too serious for this film…
I just love the fact that the powers that be embraced the concept that Keanu Reeves is the man responsible for perhaps the biggest scientific breakthrough in recent times. They didn’t try to dress him in a labcoat or even whack a pair of spectacles on him. They just said ‘he did it’ and ran with it.
So in keeping with that theme Eddie (Keanu Reeves) makes a breakthrough in hydrogen energy that might very well change the world.
Yep Keanu. Deal with it…
Unfortunately as is always the case some bad guys think dimly (insert Keanu joke here) of the project giving away potentially profitable secrets for free. Secrets that can be exploited for cash. They kill the team leader and blow up the lab, framing Eddie and fellow scientist Lily (Rachel Weisz).
But before they can exclaim ‘we didn’t do it’, leaps of logic and nonsensical decisions are rushed to, and on the run we go.
With Agent Ford (Fred Ward) of the FBI on the trail and shady guys in the wings, the events in the film unfortunately unfold in just such a chain reaction as referenced in the title. Duo run, bond, seek proof to absolve them, find evidence of the real masterminds, they – and we – feign surprise, the End.
The only things more remarkable than Keanu changing the world is just how rapidly he morphs into Mr Fix-It over the course of the film. Eddie drives jet boats on iced over rivers, fights of highly trained FBI agents two and three at a time and beats down hired killers. But he ain’t finished yet. He also steals multiple cars, hacks into a police database and effortlessly infiltrates a top secret government facility.
Not bad for a man who made his name as a time travelling college loser.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. Chain Reaction is just one of many lazy formula pieces that proliferated the 90s, and while it isn’t awful it is by no means necessary.
P.S. I also knocked off 0.5 points when a bunch of boneheads broke into applause for absolutely no reason near the end of the film.
