Heatstroke - Ein höllischer Trip

Not sure why all the terrible reviews. Sure, this is not your typical Stephen Dorf film, but the actors all did a great job -- portrayal of the average American family dealing with a disgruntled teenager in the aftermath of a divorce and an absent father wrapped up in his work, revealed through a (rather weak) attempt of the father to "man up" and be a dad. Sad, but after the mishap with the dad (mentioned in the description), the best thing that could have happened to this teenage female was what did happen -- to be alone with, and dependent upon, the adult female character. Although there are instances in which coincidence is way out of line with plausibility, the story line, overall, is believable. I did find it interesting that we did not see more animals, as we were taken through the wilds of South Africa. The adult female, though apparently out of her realm of expertise, seems quite capable, I was surprised that she was not portrayed as doing some basic survivalist things that even I would know to do. Overall a decent film, not too many boring moments.

Here is a movie that was striving to be great but only managed to be slightly above average.Everything about this movie should have made for 10 star reviews.The cinematography was beautiful but not stunning...and i didn't even notice it till three quarters way through the movie.The acting was the biggest disappointment.None of the actors seemed like they really wanted to be there...being those characters,feeling those emotions.The lack of strong emotion is why this movie failed to be great.The plot ,without the appropriate emotions to drive it,became forgettable.The closer to the end,the better the movie was,yet it was too little ,too late.Still above average,i just wont see it again...

Not sure why so many low user reviews - this is a solid movie. It's worth checking out.

OK. 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.

This movie could be used in filmclass on how not to make an effective dramathriller.

The first third establishes Stephen Dorff as the main lead, at that point of the movie it's a familydrama.

That changes though in the second third, where without spoiling anything "something happens" and Stephen Dorff "dissappears from the movie".

Which of course is a surprise as the movie markets itself as a Stephen Dorff-movie on the cover and he's the dominating force in the first third as well as said.

He's also sporting a gun in the cover to make you believe it's a actionthriller but in the movie he does not have a gun, he plays a very non-threatening hyena expert.

The movie then pretty much out of the blue turns into a thriller with Dorff's girlfriend and daughter trying to escape badly written stereotypical "bad guys" played by Peter Stormare (who could play a role like this in his sleep) and 2 unknowns.

The acting overall is uninspired and occasionally just plain bad, the kid does try and gets it right occasionally but she can't save this movie although I'm sure in another movie with the right director she can shine but it's just a lackluster production overall.

3.5 out of 10 from me, there are hints that there are some talent involved, but overall it just fails to entertain and make you care about what's gonna happen.