Following his success with The Fugitive, Andrew Davis tried to tap once again into the conspiracy and chase that rocketed that film to success (not to mention its incredible star power. This time out, with Chain Reaction, he stacks the cast with Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz.

In fact, Davis pulls out all the stops, included in the cast is Fred Ward, Brian Cox, Joanna Cassidy and Kevin Dunn. For the score… Jerry Goldsmith. There’s some nice standout sequences, the bridge comes to mind, but it just doesn’t have the same omph as The Fugitive, despite feeling similar thematically.

This time out its Eddie (Reeves) and Dr. Lily Sinclair (Weisz) who are on the run. They and a group of scientists have been working on a free energy solution using hydrogen. And they may have just figured it out. Not just game-changing but world-changing right?

Well, no one’s going to let that get out to the public, even the people who want to use it for their government contracts.

So soon, Sinclair and Eddie find themselves framed for murder and hip deep in a conspiracy that reveals all its villains way too early. And of course, the FBI team, led by Ford (Ward) is determined to do their job, even if they don’t believe Eddie and Sinclair are the guilty party.

It’s fast-paced, but not quite as engaging as The Fugitive, and some of the visual effects aren’t as strong as they should be.

Still, Reeves and Weisz are solid, and their supporting cast is more than up to the task. Cox is always a good villain, and Freeman remains an icon. I just think a stronger story was needed, perhaps some stronger set pieces and maybe it shouldn’t have tried to measure up to The Fugitive.

Ward is always fantastic, and there are some great locations, including some Chicago stuff, but the ending, of course, hints that the free energy is released to the world. They should have gone with the downer ending with it being hidden away, tying it into modern day conspiracy theories that something like this already exists.

Reeves is always likable, and here he is just a few short movies from blowing up with The Matrix. It’s fun to see that he’s always willing to take all manner of work, and try different genres and styles.

This could have worked really well. A little more science, a little more story, and some more big moments, this one could have been very big. Instead it just sort of muddled, did okay on home video, and seems to have kind of vanished.

It’s still worth a look, I think, for the cast alone.