The Chain

Most people would consider this movie a little lacking in realism. This may be true, but any movie that puts Gary Busey in a clown suit, and gets him beat up by a group of mexicans, is definately a quality movie in my book. This movie, despite it's somewhat lack of insanity on the part of the Buse's character, set a standard in action movies, to be copied by such films as Fled.

Somewhere down the line, Gary Busey turned from fantastic character actor starring in the likes of Big Wednesday, Straight Time and The Buddy Holly Story to playing wide-eyed bloated villains (Under Siege, Drop Zone) or D-List Action Leads (Bulletproof, Act Of Piracy). This movie falls into the latter category - The Chain is made by and for the Friday post-pub brigade, the acting is good, the action is ordinary and the storyline is unoriginal. Yet, it still entertains. Like Busey, the movie has an edgy charm, it would take a person with a heart of stone to not find Busey amusing. In short, 3 of four stars I've awarded this movie are for Busey, a single star for everything else.

Cardboard actioner without any charm. A policeman (Busey) goes to a troubled country of Latin American (great "cliché") hunting a wanted criminal (Rivers) but things doesn't go well and they find themselves attached to each other by a chain. Routine plot had better examples in the past. Extremely boring and dull. I give this a 4 (four).

Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon, Under Siege) & Victor Rivers (Blood In Blood Out) are literally chained together as cop & criminal respectively down in Latin America. The kind of movie that littered the shelves at your local corner store or Blockbuster back in the 90's with about as much fresh energy as you would expect here. Which is to say not much.

Mortal enemies who have to get over their hostility to work together, survive, earn a mutual respect begrudgingly or even become friends. It's a one note premise that's already been done before to death. The formula is obvious and it's worn and the script here is one note and borderline boring.

'The Chain' isn't horribly made or acted - there's some required bursts of action - it's just tired and plain feeling. You might have chose to watch it back in the day because of Busey as he has his charms, but this isn't top tier Gary and with so much out there to choose from you can make a better pick.