A different way of telling a story

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This was one of the last PM Entertainment movies to be made with studio founders and executive producers Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin still around; they exited the company not long afterwards. As it turned out, they got out around the right time, because the quality of the studio product was starting to go downhill, including with this movie. It's not one of the worst PM Entertainment made in the years before (like "East L.A. Warriors" or "Shotgun") or the few years afterwards (like "Con Express"), but unlike the movies the studio turned out during its glory days, it feels very uninspired and mediocre. For one thing, the apparent and sudden slash to the movies' budgets is very apparent. The movie has to resort to using footage from "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and a long car chase sequence is made almost entirely from footage from the Steven Seagal movie "Marked For Death".The script offers nothing new, not just for the fact that a climatic plot twist is ripped off from the movie "The Odessa File". True, the script for a film like this doesn't really matter - the action scenes are the main attraction. But unlike the movies made by PM Entertainment a few years earlier, the action comes across as very generic and nothing special. You sense that everyone involved is phoning it in instead of really trying hard.Even die hard fans of PM Entertainment movies will most likely find this tiresome. Rewatch "Last Man Standing", "The Sweeper", "Executive Target", or "Rage" instead.

Jack Poynt (Sabato Jr.) is a military man who specializes in 'demo excavation', in other words, sweeping mines out of Cambodia and saving the local villagers. Jack Poynt's life changes forever when he comes across an Army medic's diary that was written during the Vietnam War. It turns out that a fellow soldier named Maxwell Camden (Ward) committed all sorts of wartime atrocities. Now, in the present day, Camden is a big muckty-muck in the government and he will go to great lengths to stop the diary from going public - including sending his goons (one of which is Sean Kanan) out to torture and murder people. Along the way, Jack crosses paths with a ruthless, beautiful female assassin that seems like she belongs in another movie named Kim (Park). But the two will have to team up to defeat Camden and the baddies before a big arms deal goes down between China and Vietnam...and time is running out. Will Jack make his Poynt? Find out...The Chaos Factor is kind of a middle-of-the-road affair. On the one hand, it's a PM production, so there are plenty of car chases, explosions, shooting scenes, and a decent amount of action. It's also not overly junky in the production values department and there is some nice cinematography from Jacques Haitkin. On the other hand, it's supposed to be a serious-minded drama at other times - a governmental thriller with the haunting echoes of the Vietnam conflict infusing it all. Not that that would be a bad thing, of course, but all the drama is undercut somewhat by the odd choice to have footage from Seagal's Marked For Death (1990) all over the action scenes. Tip to filmmakers: if you're going for seriousness, don't resort to Seagal footage spliced into the movie.Adding insult to injury, the footage doesn't match very well. You don't have to be particularly eagle-eyed to know when we've whiplashed into suddenly watching a car chase from Marked For Death. Presumably, if you're watching the Chaos Factor, you've already seen Marked For Death - has anyone watched them the other way around? Regardless, this was the directorial debut of Terry Cunningham, so perhaps we should cut him a bit of slack, almost like you would for someone learning on the job. Thankfully, Cunningham had good people around him like Haitkin and Fred Ward who could dress things up significantly.We enjoyed most of the scenes with Susie Park, mainly because that's when the movie becomes out-and-out action. Sean Kanan strongly resembles James Spader, and fan favorite R. Lee Ermey is underutilized...but would you believe he was cast as an Army Colonel? I know, wonders never cease. That brings us to Sabato Jr., who is a solid leading man for these types of things...though it should be noted that (in this movie at least) he has a tramp stamp. We don't believe we've ever seen a male action hero with a lower-back tattoo before. Much like how the Seagal footage undercuts the seriousness of the movie, Sabato Jr.'s tramp stamp undercuts our confidence in him as an action hero. It starts off as Sweepers (1998), becomes Broken Arrow (1996), them becomes No Way Out (1987), then becomes Yes, Madam (1985), all with a dusting of a Steven Segal movie from ten years previous. If this sounds like something you're up for, well here it is. The DTV world in 2000 was a confusing place indeed.

"Chaos Factor" - maybe not the title I would have chosen, but it really was a pretty good movie. I thought that Sabato did a good job and I really like Fred Ward too. Sabato's character was a decent guy who was destined to make the right decision at the right time. The action and stunts were good and I thought the locations were believable. His decision to do the right thing, however was predictable, rather than blindly follow military protocol and cover-up the wrongdoing of a few bad apples over 20+ years prior. I also liked the fact that I could watch this movie with my 10 year old son. There was very little, if any, vulgar language and the love scenes were left to the imagination which makes it easier watching was kids. Overall, I think this movie is worth the time and money!

One of my pet peeves is watching a movie where someone rips off a really good premise, like Enemy of the State, and botches it.Same idea: a guy (Antonio Sabato Jr.) finds a long buried secret that could destroy an extremely powerful politician and suddenly the guy is prey to the powers that be.Most glaringly apparent plot hole: Antonio's character is in the Army and could have been easily detained by his superiors with just one phone call from the powerful politician. Instead, the bad guy who works for the politician (and former CIA/military man, as usual), tries to blow him up, kills two of his friends and kidnaps him with the intent of torturing him for information. Luckily, he's saved by a Chinese secret agent (Susie Park in the best portrayal of a female agent in tight black leather since Charlie's Angels) and together they expose the evil plot to eradicate the Asian race.I liked Susie Park's character. She is a cold blooded killer (which she plainly states) and martial artist that can trade punches with the best of the bad guys and she doesn't have a problem using bondage on Antonio (ooh, hot flash). She can also take a punch in the face and, as she recovers, coolly flip her hair at her aggressor. Now that's one cool customer! Sorry, I just realized that I'm making this movie sound good...it isn't. There are 2 too many cars chases (if you've seen this movie you'll find that extremely funny) and the characters are one dimensional. I only have one question: who gives these people money to make this kind of garbage? They must have had one hell of a pitch-man to get this one made.My one word summary: Ugh!