The Chaos Factor

Too many memories of the Viet-Nam War have gone unresolved and thus the United States of America continues to pay with it's Vetrans having nightmares. This is one such painful memory, the movie is called " The Chaos Factor " and is perhaps reminiscent of the many black sins involved in the entire war. Capt. Jack Poynt (Antonio Sabato Jr.) is a military intelligent Officer who is assigned to duty in Viet-Nam. While there his primary task is to locate and destroy land minds and any other artifact which is believed to be U.S. property. What he discovers instead is a personal soldier's diary depicting a secret and covert operation in which Viet-Namese national were captured, tortured, murdered and subjected to chemical toxins. All this under the direction of one Col. Max Camden (Fred Ward) and the men of his special task force. Learning of the illegal top secret mission, Capt. Poynt seeks to bring these men to justice only to discover a whole level of the military would rather destroy him and the journal than to have it resurface in the press. R.Lee Ermey, Sean Kanan and Susie as a female assassin help to commit the cast. A good, dramatic and action pack film and one with few flaws. One easily recommended to an audience member who wants to learn of one mortal sin committed by our military. ****

The film starts out with an interesting premise but disappoints as it progresses. The situation from the Vietnam War that starts us off is compelling enough, but the story then goes off in several directions and can't decide which one it wants to develop. As other reviewers have noted, it recycles themes from several other movies and in the end almost becomes predictable from its reworking of these plots. I kept expecting to see Jon Voight (a la "Odessa File"; if you've seen it, you'll figure out why) pop out but had to settle for the mostly unknown cast. Despite this, the movie is fast paced and full of action and presents mild, if not very mindful, entertainment.

Every film student should watch "The Chaos Factor" as a study in how to take a pretty good premise, write and direct it poorly, and come away with an uneven, not very satisfying film.

War crimes were committed in 1972 in Cambodia. The bad guys thought they covered their tracks, but a diary turns up in 1999. Then the fun and action begins. Too bad it wasn't written better.

This film appears to be a poor quality remake of 'The Odessa File', with fewer ideas. The main characters are unpleasant, you don't care about any of them, and what was the Chinese girl upto anyway. Not worth watching.

"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!