Heatstroke (2013)

Simply A Masterpiece

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

It is a performances centric movie

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I picked up this movie from my local Wal-Mart's DVD bargain bin, in part because it was cheap and also because it promised to be yet another retelling of the old "Most Dangerous Game" formula. Some of these retellings have been good, and some have been bad. While I wouldn't say "Heatstroke" is one of the very WORST tellings of this formula, it is without doubt one of the dullest. I could live with the fact that top-billed star Stephen Dorff is only in about a third of the total running time, and I'll admit that the movie doesn't look too bad for what wasn't a high budget. But when it comes to action, the movie pretty much blows it. There's hardly ANYTHING in the way that could be considered "action" - the movie is instead content to depict the protagonists' plight in a really slow and mostly dull manner. It doesn't help that one of the protagonists (the teenage girl) is incredibly annoying, from her attitude to her incredible stupidity. As I said in my review of the movie "Death Ring", if you want to see a GOOD take on this formula, seek out the movies "Raw Courage" (a.k.a. "Courage"), "Avenging Force", and "Surviving the Game" instead.

Paul takes his young daughter and mistress to a wild adventure in the desert to see the surroundings and observe different animal behavior. For some reason they must separate from Tally in order to reunite again later but Paul falls as a prey to a sort of hunters who he sees them taking the fangs from a rhinoceros. Fortunately Josie escapes unharmed and she is found by Tally but now the two must run from those who hunt them.Well, it was a good way to spend an hour and a half although the story is quite sad. I still like it and having in mind that it doesn't contain violence to the animals, is bearable. The action is little is more like a cat and mouse type we see more running then action scenes, maybe this is the reason for the low rating, oh, and yes the little girl is annoying but hey, she is just a teen in our days so she didn't make a mistake. So for an sad adventure tale or for the melancholic type of audience this one is just fine.

I watched this movie to see the performance of Maisie Williams: and because the scenario was Africa. It was enjoyable, yet not exceptional. Major performances by the actors were impressive. Yet, there was a lack of dimension in the character interactions as the movie progressed which bothered me. It went from 'I hate you' to 'I respect and admire you' without the depth of interaction I wanted to see. This might have been the direction or screenplay because the on screen performances of the main characters was certainly genuine enough. I gave this a 6 because I am glad of the experience of watching it. I did not give it more...because it was just entertaining and I saw no instances of exceptional development between the characters which certainly was possible. Glad I watched it but won't bother to watch it again for any exceptional moments of clarity or a glimpse into human relationships that the film might have celebrated. A Hollywood film...entertaining but lacking artistic depth.

This movie has received strangely bad reviews. I liked it a lot. It has both action, adventure, excitement, interesting characters (especially the resourceful Russian stepmother), beautiful nature scenery, evil crooks and compassionate crooks. You also learn a little about the hyena. It kept me interested all the time! The bad relation between stepmother and stepdaughter in the beginning, is of course classic. It is infested with poison, as they are both female and both love the same man. In reality of course the stepmothers and stepdaughters seldom get such a fantastic opportunity to bond, as in this movie... but it is still worth checking out, if you are a stepmother (or -daughter).