Very well executed
Sadly Over-hyped
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
View MoreThe storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
View MoreI sat down to watch "Heatstroke" purely because I had the chance and it was readily available. It wasn't a movie that I had any plans to watch, just happened to come by it by sheer random luck. And I didn't have any expectations to it, nor did I know what it was about; although I had somewhat thought it might have been a disaster movie with the title "Heatstroke".And now having seen the movie, it most definitely wasn't a disaster movie. It was an action thriller of sorts. Although, if I have to be honest, then it was fairly scarce on the thriller aspect. And actually equally so on the action part.This is the story of unruly teenager Josie (played by Maisie Williams) who travels to Africa with her father Paul (played by Stephen Dorff) and his new girlfriend Tally (played by Svetlana Metkina). Here she doesn't find the closeness to her father that she is looking for, and she has to return home to the United States. However, something happens on the way back to the airport, and Josie wakes up bloody and confused in an overturned car, with Tally at her side...I will not go further into details about the story, as that would somewhat be ruining it. Why? Well, because the storyline is rather simplistic and doesn't really have much depth or many aspects to it. It is a straight forward story, for sure, but it was just too predictable to the point where it was a mundane movie experience.The acting in the movie was good, and I must say that both Stephen Dorff and Peter Stormare really performed quite well here. It was just a shame that Peter Stormare didn't really have more time on the screen, because his character wasn't fully utilized to its full potential.All in all a watchable movie certainly, just don't get your hopes up. "Heatstroke" offers nothing profound or groundbreaking to the genre. In fact, it is actually a rather generic action thriller, to be bluntly honest. There is nothing here that hasn't already been seen in other similar movies.
View MoreI'm not sure about the hate this movie seems to be getting, as it is far from as bad as what some people are saying.Plot In A Paragraph: Paul (Stephen Dorff) is a hyena expert who is preparing for a trip to the wilds of Africa to research them with his new Russain girlfriend Tally (Svetlana Metkina) and his teenage daughter Jo (Maisie Williams) from an earlier relationship. However things take a turn for the worse when they come across three villains led by Mallick (Peter Stormare) Dorff does as you'd expect, though he doesn't have that much to do, Svetlana Metkina does OK and carries the majority of the movie along with the awesome Maisie Williams, who stops Jo being the cliché of teenage brat/brooding step daughter.
View MoreOK. Let's start with the weaknesses. Formulaic plot. Jarring gaps in narrative. Stereotyped bad guys. Dumb behaviour causing the thematic problem. Now that that's out of the way, the scenery is fascinating, and the two female leads are absolutely fine in carrying out their roles. This is a part of the world we rarely see in film, and the settings are edifying. Also, the scientific material on hyenas is very interesting, and the development of a theme around their behaviour is pretty clever. This is a deeply flawed movie, but I didn't find it that hard to watch, and my memories of having seen it are mostly positive. It's worth watching if you're interested in African settings, animal behaviour and/or general adventure themes.
View MoreSveta's character is more interesting than meets the eye, plot notwithstanding. Her attitude towards reality and survival was declared in a few, brief bits of dialogue. One scene where she is beating herself up in Russian, feeling guilty for the death of her partner, comes across as a natural emotional response to a horrible event. The second refers to "civil war" as an irrevocable educational crucible, in not so many words, when she is responding to the kid's question about where she learned to recognize something evil. These bits are profound and convey quite a lot of depth and meaning to a character too easily dismissed by a less insightful viewer.
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