High Heat

I figured with Don Johnson in it the film (movie) would be decent but I was wrong. The actors are mostly forgettable. The script seemed like something a student writer would be encouraged to seek a different career over. Meandering, uninteresting, muddled, boring, flavorless, not comedic engaging or dramatic. I think someone had budget money left over and needed to spend it so they gave Don and Olga 80% of it and then hired volunteers to fill in the cast leaving them with just enough left over to rent a street, a parking garage, 4 vehicles, and part of a commercial kitchen.

In my next life I will not watch this movie.

A one-location and "defend the fort" type of movie, with an attempt at colorful characters and a bunch of bad guys that rush in to their death under the pretense of a thin-layer of a story.

I'll be honest! The alluring, creative and simple intro credits won me over! Then the repetitive and dull dialogue started to lose me.. Doesn't help that most of the cast is comprised of boring roles (with a few exceptions that probably shine when compared) and their interactions forgettable. The pacing is meandering and the sporadic "action scenes" aren't worth it. Even if the camerawork is commendable. I also noticed strange and choppy editing cuts, including sounds abruptly ending.. as if rushed. And when Olga's stunt double is SO visibly-not-her on screen (and doesn't even look like her) for longer than she is, you mark this as a disappointing night.

If you see the SABAN Films logo, you tone down your expectations.

As I stumbled upon the 2022 action comedy "High Heat", here late in 2022, I had never heard about the movie. But seeing that the movie had Don Johnson and Olga Kurylenko on the cast list, and having read the movie's synopsis, I was actually having some expectations for the movie.

And now as the movie has come to and end, I am sitting here with an overwhelming sensation of having been cheated out of something grander and somewhat having been wasting my time on a subpar movie. Writer James Pedersen didn't exactly churn out a grand script here for director Zach Golden to work with. Sure, "High Heat" was watchable and had good production value to it, but the storyline was rather flaccid.

It was nice definintely nice to watch Don Johnson and Olga Kurylenko in the leading roles, but they didn't have a wholesome script to work with. And I have to say that the option for bringing on Dallas Page to play the main bad guy in the movie wasn't exactly a stroke of genius.

"High Heat" came and went without leaving a lasting impression, and it is a movie that will slowly, quietly, but surely, dwindle into the mists of oblivion and never be brought out and viewed as second time. It was, in fact, a rather forgettable and sort of pointless action comedy.

My rating of "High Heat" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Not sure if this was supposed to be a comedy or a drama.

It was awful.

Try this on for size. A former KGB agent (Olga Kurylenko) now has her own restaurant. Her husband (Don Johnson) owes a ton of money to mobsters. They want to burn down the restaurant for the insurance money.

Not realizing Johnson's wife has talents other than being a chef, let's just say the thugs find it difficult to achieve their goal.

I gave this thing 4 stars because one of the actors was a riot - Jackie Long as Gary the masseuse. He steals the movie. That's not saying much, but he's certainly better than this drivel.

Lots of violence, some of it left to the imagination. But just some of it.

I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised after watching this well-paced 84 min action-comedy film. This is newb filmmaker Zach Golden's second full length feature film as director, and he did not disappoint. It is also James Pedersen's first ever writing credit, and although not perfect, it was still fun. Although some characters were your typical cliched mobsters with cliched dialogue, it still worked, and actually had some laugh out loud moments. All casting and performances were spot-on and convincing, and Golden did a great job directing his cast, especially for a newb director. Even the action scenes were exceptionally filmed and well choreographed. The dark humor was mostly hit with a few misses. Johnson and Kurylenko (who looked stunning) worked very well together, as did Kaitlin Doubleday and Chris Diamantopoulos and their twin daughters, who were a hilarious family right out of the Griswold's playbook. Even the score and cinematography were great, especially for a B film. It's not a perfect film, but it's one of the better and more entertaining B films I've seen this year, and worth a one-time watch. It's a well deserved 7/10 from me.