An overambitious action thriller kneecapped by financial woes and shelved for almost 3 years negotiates a second chance on streaming

Based on the fate to have befallen both of their collaborations so far, Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes should probably steer clear of one another for the foreseeable future, with their first team-up in Chaos being put through the wringer.

A decade before they reunited for The Expendables 3 – which was crippled by a watered-down PG-13 rating and a leaked copy that helped ensure it was the worst-reviewed and lowest-earning entry in the franchise until the next one came along – the action icons shared the screen in writer and director Tony Giglio’s ambitious and twist-heavy procedural thriller.

Statham’s grizzled vet is partnered with Ryan Phillipe’s rookie to negotiate a hostage situation, unaware that Snipes’ criminal mastermind has deployed a virus that models itself – before ultimately adapting and evolving – on the principles of chaos theory. A solid setup, but financial issues effectively neutered the film.

Thanks partly to Battlefield Earth, production company Franchise Pictures went bust, forcing heavy rewrites of the script that slashed the budget and cut the shooting schedule from 40 to 22 days, and the ongoing issues saw Chaos hit theaters in the United Arab Emirates in December of 2005, but it wouldn’t secure a domestic distribution deal until February 2008.

Fortunately, Statham‘s back catalogue tends to fare well on streaming regardless of where you can find it, with the chrome-domed ass-kicker’s enduring popularity ensuring that Chaos has finally avoided the ignominy of living up to its title by getting a fresh gust of wind in its streaming sails. Per FlixPatrol, the movie that saw its ambition undercut by the bean-counters is one of the biggest hits on Starz, even if it could have been better were it not the victim of extenuating circumstances.