Passado Criminoso

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.

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!

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.

A total waste of time, car chase after car chase and unbelievable situations. This is a bummer. I gave it a 1 only because I could not give it a 0. In a class with Executive Power. I wish reviews were more honest. Fred Ward is growing old and Antonio Sabato, Jr. needs better material. What a waste of time.

"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!