No. 2 Chain Reaction (1996) 2 of 100

 

For our second look at a Michael Shannon film I’ve booted up his second appearance in the risible 1996 conspiracy action thriller ‘Chain Reaction’. I hadn’t seen this film before as it looked rubbish and having now watched it and confirmed this to be the case I’ll never have to watch it again. Unless I do a Brian Cox retrospective which is unlikely. Hmm ‘Rushmore’ though…

Going forward I will pick a random Shannon film from my spreadsheet using Random.org. If I don’t have the file in my library I’ll go for the one above it and if it’s a Boardwalk Empire entry I’ll go to the last block that I haven’t seen. More fun doing a random film than plodding though in consecutive order. I’ll note the file number from my list (1-93) so you’ll know where it falls in the oeuvre.

Anyway, I wanted to watch this next given that Shannon’s ‘Groundhog Day’ debut was a meagre two scenes and I wanted to see how he had progressed in his second credit, which took three years to appear. Guess what? It’s an even smaller part that consists of only once scene and a couple of lines and with none of the principals. The main point of interest here is that Michael is credited as ‘Mike Shannon’ – I wonder why? A bit more action packed and sexy I guess!

The film opens in a big warehouse where experiments are underway to try and create a clean energy source. We know these are good people as Morgan Freeman is in a cardigan and Keanu Reeves is sporting an awful flannel shirt. At the start Reeves is a machinist who makes, what I would assume to be, precision cogs with an old router and his keen eye. Of course it works and clean energy is created. “Say goodbye to your utility bills" says one fool before some black ops shits come in and trash the place. That doesn’t actually take much effort as for some unknown reason this high tech lab has been set up in that warehouse at the end of ‘Robo-Cop’.

Scientists are killed and the bad guys try to harness the new technology. Alas only Keanu has the required frequencies and he goes on the run with fetching scientist Rachel Weisz. When I say ‘run’ I mean RUN as Keanu must have completed the equivalent of several marathons in this production.

As a surprise to no one whatsoever, Freeman turns out to be the baddie in a thinly drawn character who’s only gimmick is that he smokes a cigar. He’s also called ‘Shannon’ which is a bit confusing as far as this blog is concerned! He’s in cahoots with Brian Cox’ rogue agent who delivers a career worst performance – think Dundee jakeball in a bad wig doing a Southern Gentleman accent and you are only halfway to the terribleness of his offering here.

At this stage Keanu doesn’t know Freeman is the bad guy and a meet up is arranged by sending him a bunch of flowers. This is somewhat ridiculous, but it does give our man his big moment as Michael (Mike) Shannon is the flower delivery man. Strangely we don’t see him delivering the flowers, with his van being stopped after the delivery was done. I wonder if this scene was added to add some exposition, as none of the main characters appear with Michael. He looks young and thin and has floppy hair. He delivers his lines nervously, which may be good acting as the flower delivery man would be nervous when getting interrogated by the Feds, but he just comes across as a nervous actor who has never delivered a daffodil in his life.

In seventeen seconds, Michael’s race is run. I was hoping he’d reappear as some sort of secret agent, but that really was it. The film meanders on for another 40 minutes after he takes his leave, with a few double crosses and a couple of explosions. At the end the clean energy recipe is out there and Freeman escapes in his Government car to create more mayhem in a thankfully, unrealised sequel.

This was an awful film and I have no idea who it was aimed at. Cox, Reeves and Freeman are all going through the motions with good character actors like Fred Ward wasted on the side-lines. There was an intended message here about the environment and government and big business interference, but it was basically a fat Keanu Reeves running about and doing unlikely equations.

The mystery didn’t exist, the action was weak and the dialogue laughable. Basically my reaction was ‘Meh’!

When is Shannon-On? - 1.03.20 (New Record)

Outcome? Presumably off to deliver more flowers

Film 2/5

Shannon Stars 1/5