Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Excellent adaptation.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Chain Reaction is not an epic, by any stretch of the word...but it is an entertaining movie none the less...Don't put on your pointy science hat, unless it is tin foil of course, because the scientific aspect is quite a stretch of the imagination, at least.And don't try to figure out why 90% of the movie involves a not so covert manhunt, by a secret organization, trying to capture Keanu Reaves...who happens to be a machinist who "machined" the parts for a cold fusion apparatus. He has no secret knowledge of how this break through engery system works, but we are to believe he is crucial to the secrets that will unlock limitless energy at low cost...Ok ok, I'm done with my rant. The movie is actually entertaining, so I gave it a 7 for that alone...

Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, and Rachel Weisz are involved in a "Chain Reaction" in this 1996 film, directed by Andrew Davis, who also directed "The Fugitive." There are some plot similarities, but then, there are also plot similarities to many other films.Reeves plays Eddie, a young man who is part of a team working toward clean, free energy, - obviously, a highly-prized entity by many people. On the night their work actually pays off, and their experiment is a success, the team has a huge party. Later, an unknown faction basically destroys the building, wiping out eight city blocks. Eddie, who was returning to the building to pick up his motorcycle after seeing the tipsy Lily (Weisz) home, ends up being framed and goes on the run with Lily. Everyone is after them, especially after a police officer is killed, for which Eddie is blamed.This film had fantastic effects, imaginative stunts, and decent performances, with Rachel Weisz being wasted in an extraneous role. Freeman's character is deliberately ambiguous, and he does a good job at keeping us guessing. Handsome Keanu Reeves, not really a great actor, is nevertheless not a bad actor either, so he is able to hold his own.I don't mind a film being derivative, but my basic problem with this one occurs at the beginning. For me there just wasn't enough set-up. I understand that producers today want all the action to start a few minutes into the film, but there was not enough development in the beginning to attach us to this massive project and the people working on it. An extra five minutes would have been fine.Entertaining, a good rental.

Simply put, one of my favorite movies of the 90s, because I'm a big fan of the Fugitive. This plot follows it adds a bit of a new age spin on it. Enjoyable flick with very good actors and a cast that features Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Fred Ward, Brian Cox, Rachel Weisz and many others, highly recommended if you're a fan of the Fugitive or U.S. Marshalls!The story is about a chemist & his friend suspected of murdering their mentor and Reeves & Weisz receive help from a friend of their fallen colleague and they try and find out who is trying to frame them for murder. Much like The Fugitive, which ironically is done by most of the same crew and features some of the actors from that film, it's a great flick to pass the time on.

Eddie Kasalivich is a student machinist working on a project at the University of Chicago to obtain energy from water, when he discovers the secret of a process by which low-cost energy can be obtained from burning hydrogen, leaving only water as a residue. (The exact science is not always clear, but this appears to be some sort of nuclear fusion). Someone, however, obviously wants to sabotage Eddie's discovery, and one of his colleagues is murdered and the laboratory is destroyed in a massive explosion. Eddie and another colleague, Dr. Lily Sinclair, are questioned by the police and the FBI, and quickly realise that someone is trying to frame them for both the murder and the explosion. They are forced to go on the run to try and clear their names and to expose the true culprits.It is not just the science upon which the film is based that is unclear; the plot too is often over-elaborate and difficult to fathom. We eventually learn that the real villains are agents of the Government and of Big Business, who are desperate to suppress Eddie's discovery because they fear that a new cheap, environmentally friendly source of energy would make oil obsolete, force all oil companies into bankruptcy and lead to economic depression and social chaos. In fact, capitalism is rather more adaptable than the screenwriters imagine; a new energy source of this nature, by dramatically reducing industry's energy costs, would more likely lead to an economic boom and huge profits for those companies who could exploit this lucrative new technology. Existing energy companies would probably be among them, just as many stagecoach owners made a fortune from the invention of the steam train by re-investing their money in railway shares. The only people with a vested interest in preventing such inventions reaching the market would be the governments of those countries which possess vast reservoirs of crude oil and very little else, but the film-makers doubtless thought that, in paranoid conspiracy-thrillers like this one, the United States Government makes a better villain than do foreign ones.Keanu Reeves's performance as Eddie is adequate but not outstanding. Rachel Weisz as Lily, in her first starring role in a Hollywood film, is rather muted, and gives little indication that she would later develop into a major talent. Probably the best acting comes from the generally reliable Morgan Freeman as Paul Shannon, Eddie's old mentor who may have a sinister agenda, but "Chain Reaction" is not one of the really great Freeman films like "Glory", "Unforgiven" or "The Shawshank Redemption".The film does have some better qualities. The director Andrew Davis has been praised by his visual sense, and "Chain Reaction" is visually very attractive. The action takes place in winter and there is some striking photography of a wintry, snow-bound Chicago, especially the scenes set in the grim industrial districts and around the astronomical observatory which plays an important part in the plot. The action sequences are exciting, fast-moving and well handled.Davis has a reputation for specialising in thrillers. His films tend to vary in quality, but he has at least one very good one to his credit, "The Fugitive", one of the best thrillers of the nineties. (That film also dealt with a man forced to go on the run after being falsely accused of a crime). "Chain Reaction" is not in the same class as "The Fugitive", but it is a watchable thriller with some points of interest. 6/10