Havoc is a loud movie that tries to hide its stupidity by amping up the volume. It attempts to revive the 1970s grimy cop thrillers by making everything dark, violent, and cynical. In the process, it forgets to include all the things that made the 70s films so memorable. Like character, plot, and intrigue.

Tom Hardy plays a crooked, deadbeat cop who can't even find a Christmas present for his estranged kid. After a shady deal goes wrong, he's tasked with finding an equally corrupt Mayor's son, who has cops, triads, and other gangsters after him. The drama plays out over the course of a single night, but you'll probably stop caring well before sunset.

I wasn't a fan of director Gareth Evans' first feature, The Raid, nor its messy sequel, but I could appreciate both for the craftsmanship in their action sequences. Sadly, Havoc displays none of the artistry or elegance as its predecessors.

Instead, the action is a shaky-cam hellscape of poorly staged fights, endless gunfire, and aggressively tedious choreography that highlights how little anyone has bothered to learn how to fight. There's a particularly egregious fight in a club that is so clumsy is becomes embarrassing. Evans once let us see every detail of his hyper-focused fight sequences. Now, the more we see, the less it impresses.

The garish visuals are painful to look at, and the excessive CGI bullets and blood look like cast-offs from Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. There's a mild sense of fun in how outrageous it gets, but it straddles an odd line between serious and silly that never finds the right tone. Extended car chases involving horrifically dated computer generated imagery harken back to early 2000s direct to video titles. In an effort to be a bit of everything, Havoc turns in a whole lot of nothing.

Evan's tries his best to evoke the feel of Hong Kong action films like Election and The Killer, but fails to capture the manic energy that made them internationally recognized classics. John Woo might not be known for his deep characterization, but Evan's doesn't seem to care even for a faint glimmer of caricature. Everyone here is an idea of an outline, nothing more.

Not that the stacked cast doesn't try, but even professionals need something to cling onto. Forest Whitaker shows up for an extended cameo, Timothy Olyphant sleepwalks through a part which requires little more than scowling. Hardy lacks any sense of danger or fun, instead going for a subdued performance in an all-out film.

By the end, it just feels exhausting, and not in the fun way.