A group of bored rich white kids play at being gangstas only to land over their heads.

It's a pretty simple plot, but redeemed by some great performances especially by Anne Hathaway as she plays a bright California high school student playing at a gangster lifestyle. When she tries to make her fantasy real, things go very wrong as she and a friend end up being sexually assaulted in a hotel room.

The movie then just sort of sputters out. The two girls split over the incident with one girl going to the police while Hathaway's character tries to tell them it was their fault. It's an interesting bit of sexual politics that never gets resolved. Meanwhile her poser friends go off to take revenge on the gangsters. The film then just sort of ends offering no resolution to the viewer.

There are some very good scenes in Havoc, like Hathaway talking down her suicidal friend through sarcasm, or putting on a show of identities for her friend's amateur documentary. It was entertaining but nothing special.

Interesting look at what happens when people posing and pretending to be a certain type of person come up against someone who really are the thing they're only pretending to be. Essentially it's a movie about the most extreme type of culture shock possible- the violent kind. This is easy to miss if you get too caught up in the pretenders ridiculous (on purpose) clothing and dialogue. It also says something about rich against poor in what on the surface seems at first to be a forgettable popcorn movie- but it's worth watching twice with the second time keeping in mind the culture shock idea of people making amazingly stupid and even hilarious (speech and clothing) choices all in an effort to pretend to be something they're not- and who won't stop even when their decisions get them in more and more trouble. And yes as noted on the dvd cover it has Anne Hathaway in it.

Oscar winning documentarian Barbara Kopple takes a crack at scripted drama with this straight-to-DVD release. This unrated version adds 8 minutes to the original 85, but we can only guess what's been added. My guess is that we get to see more naughty parts. Anne Hathaway leaves her princess image behind as a spoiled rich girl from Pacific Palisades, California who becomes easily bored fellating her boyfriend (Mike Vogel) and seeks out a wilder scene in east L. A.

With Toby (Vogel), her best friend Emily (Bijou Phillips) and her wacked out boyfriend Sam (Joseph Gorden-Levitt) they decide to go downtown to score some pot. While cruising the neighborhood they come across some Latino gang-bangers headed by Hector (Freddy Rodriguez). Toby, in his white-boy version of Lil' Wayne, decides to confront Hector because he thought his score was a bit light. That doesn't go well for Toby and his tough guy cred is threatened.

Allison (Hathaway) saves her boyfriend's ass by begging Hector not to shoot him. At the same time she's exhilarating by the experience and perhaps by Hector. She returns to the scene a couple more times with just her girlfriends. The final time it is just her and Emily. They crash the crew's crib which is in a seedy motel and after a little booze and reefer insist on joining Hector's gang. The price of admission is having sex with as many of the gang as the roll of a die determines. Allison rolls an ace and goes for Hector. Emily rolls a three, but decides she can handle it. She can't.

Allison manages to leave with Emily but days later Emily decides to file rape charges. This doesn't sit well with Allison. Essentially they got what they asked for. The film flits back and forth between the streets of east L. A. and the upper crust life of the white teens. The distinctions are sharp but perhaps not as much as it could have been. The Latinos have families, children and tradition and in daytime scenes seem perfectly happy. Allison's family includes a mother just out of rehab and a workaholic father who is never home.

The heart of the story itself is hard to buy, and maybe it happens. But I don't know many people who would cruise east L. A. at night flaunting their classic Chevy convertible sporting their bejeweled whiteness. I mean really. That being said, Hathaway and Phillips are pretty damn good in their roles and give the audience an early look at their ta-tas. The film doesn't have a tidy ending which may upset some. Not a bad film and an early look at Hathaway's transition as an actress.

(2.5/5 stars) Allison knows she can imitate anyone and any sort of life, but she also knows that is not genuine. She is a disaffected teen looking for something that will make her believe in life. Her parents fight with one another, which has caused her to distrust relationships of any sort. She has sex with fellow teen Toby, though she refuses to label him "boyfriend." She thinks she might be in love with her best friend, Emily (Bijou Phillips), though she has yet to determine what love is. The crowd with which she hangs out doesn't help either; they are "wiggers:" white teens who want to live the lives of the gangsta rap they so idolize. While this identity confusion is annoying, it does provide the impetus for taking the group to East L.A., where they seek drugs and gang membership. If this sounds ludicrous, that is because it is. Whether or not it is common for wealthy, very attractive girls to head to the other side of the tracks and engage in sex with drug dealers in order to become gang members is unknown to me because I belong to neither group. However implausible it sounds, it does make for an unusual and fairly interesting film. There are some decent moments in this film and tension certainly builds, though a few things kept it from being good. The bored white teens from Pacific Palisades are supposedly from wealthy families, but there isn't much shown to suggest that. Perhaps the film's budget was very limited because the ending is also truncated to a point of being ambiguous. What are the fates of Toby and Emily? Nonetheless, Anne Hathaway does a very good job in her role as Allison and she proves with this role that she is capable of carrying a movie. The rest of the cast was also quite good, though I must reiterate that most of the teen "wiggers" were just plain irritating. Worth watching to see Anne Hathaway.

The movie is about a bunch of bored rich kids in L.A. who for some reason have this need to act all tough and trash-talk (they call themselves "wiggers" - you can start laughing now). The movie focuses on Allison (Hathaway) and her friend Emily (Phillips) who take it further than anyone by "befriending" a gang in east L.A. Then about 30 minutes into the end they want to join the gang, one of them yells "rape" and the white rich boyfriends who also act like wanna-be gangsters show up with guns. And that's about it.

Now the movie really isn't as bad as it sounds in itself. Sure, the plot is completely unoriginal, but Anne Hathaway carries the movie and makes it bearable, and she's probably the only one that's believable in this movie, and just to see her perform is worth the watch.

But other than that, it's like a serious version of "Malibu's Most Wanted" from Jamie Kennedy...and they're as believable as him, which makes the movie lose all sorts of credibility. It also has a hint of "Thirteen" and "Crazy/Beautiful" in it, but these 2 movies are in a whole different league than this one.

Other than the fact that it's not very believable (except for Anne Hathaway who is excellent, which has nothing to do with her nude scene, same goes for Bijou Phillips), the problem is that it shies away from the really ugly, harsh reality, especially the end, it's all very sugar-coated and ends way too well for the movie that it's pretending to be. I also didn't appreciate the ending very much because it makes it seem like the movie was completely pointless. No one really learns anything, and at one point there's a shooting, the screen goes black, and you're never told what happened.

All in all, it's a good showcase of Anne Hathaway's acting chops, but that's about it. I'd say it's worth a rental at best.

Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips play two friends who are rich, spoiled brats who are bored with having virtually everything. Their sheltered upbringing leaves them thirsting for some sort of excitement. This, in-turn, leads the young ladies down a dark road of drugs & violence. Early on in the story they hang out with a white gang full of people who act like they're black gangstas. From there, our mis-guided friends believe they're moving up the food chain by hanging out with a Mexican gang in a sordid part of L.A. where even the L.A.P.D. is reluctant to go.

This movie seems to me to be an overt attempt by Hathaway to shed her [[ASIN:B00006L948 The Princess Diaries (Full Screen Edition)]] persona. If her objective was to keep from being type-cast in the future as only capable of happy-go-lucky roles, then she succeeded! She is perfect for the present role precisely BECAUSE she doesn't look like a young woman who would be prone to hang out w/gangs; she would seem far too demure and innocent for that sort of thing.

Even though the movie is unrated, I still was not expecting Anne to shed her clothes. I will concede that I nearly fell off my couch when she first took her shirt off! Anne has the capacity to be the Denise Richards of her generation, and quite possibly become a far more accomplished actress than Richards. In time, she may even approach the calibre of our girl Jennifer Connelly!

The story itself is a dark one. The characters of Anne & Bijou must learn a basic lesson of growing up the hard way: when you play with fire long enough, eventually you are going to get burned. It's all fun & games, after all, until a psychopathic drug dealer is pointing a gun @ your head. Along the same path, the movie has a serious erotic element to it that quickly takes a left-turn and becomes disturbing. I'm guessing that's what usually happens when you combine gangs with sex. I'm guessing that's typically not a prudent nexus?

If you're into gang movies, this film is a must. If you're not into mob movies but you're very into seeing Anne Hathaway topless, then this DVD is a must. The fact that Anne's real-life boyfriend was sent to jail for being a white collar scam-artist may be an interesting footnote to your motivations for picking up this one.

Havoc was the movie that really broke Anne Hathaway out of the Disney mode. In it, she plays a rich Los Angeles high-school girl who hangs out with a bunch of kids who pretend to be a part of the hip-hop gangsta culture. When she ends up going to a party in East LA to hang out with actual gang members, she discovers that the life she thought it was and reality are two very different things. Part of the plot involves one of Allison's classmates making a documentary about the wannabe gangsta lifestyle of her and her friends. While I do not think it was all that integral to the plot, it did not distract from it.

Overall, I would say the movie is good but somewhat predictable and formulaic. It did show that Hathaway had real acting chops as she went from playing the wannabe gangsta chick to a "normal" acting rich suburban teenager to a very vulnerable kid when she was called out for the act she put on, with ease. And, of course, it was the first time she appeared topless on-screen diverging greatly from her Princess Diaries role. The movie also touts a strong supporting cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Freddy Rodriguez, Bijou Phillips, and Channing Tatum.

For those who get the DVD, there are no extras included. It is closed captioned, but that is it. I am not sure if the movie streams on any of the popular streaming platforms, so this may still be one that you want to pick up on disc even with the lack of extras. While it is not Hathaway's best movie, it is definitely worth checking out, especially if you are a fan of hers.

An early Anne Hathaway movie. While cast is young, the story line is more adult oriented and the views of Anne are definitely adult. Several sex scenes with nudity