Hot Seat – Movie Review
Director: James Cullen Bressack
Writer: Leon Langford, Collin Watts (Screenplay)
Cast
- Mel Gibson (Braveheart)
- Shannen Doherty (Fortress)
- Kevin Dillon (Wild Things)
- Michael Welch (Blood Craft)
- Kate Katzman (Survive the Game)
Plot: An ex-hacker is forced to break into high-level banking institutions, another man must try to penetrate the booby-trapped building to get the young man off the hot seat.
Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Hot Seat starts with an explosion rocking the city and the bomb disposal officers Wallace (Gibson) and Jackson (Steeples) look into the event. Meanwhile, computer tech Orlando (Dillon) finds himself working on his daughter’s birthday. He will get an unexpected phone call from a mysterious hacker, who has planted a bomb on his seat, forcing him to conduct his own plan.
Orlando is forced to return to his previous skill set if he is going to make it out alive. Despite being framed for the crime wave going on in the city. The building becomes surrounded and the race against time is on.
Verdict on Hot Seat
Characters
Orlando is a former hacker turned tech advisor trying to support his daughter. He is great at his job because of his background and sometimes uses an odd cheat to support someone. He finds himself forced into returning to his former life, being held hostage in his desk chair. Needing to complete a hack for someone who knows his former reputation.
Wallace Reed is on the bomb disposal team with his younger partner Jackson. They are investigating the first explosion and have been working on understanding different motives in the past. He must work to uncover the truth, with his hands kept behind his back about the truth.
The Hacker is forcing Orlando to follow his orders, only seen in hooded form, hearing his instruction along the way. He maintains control of the situation no matter what Orlando tries to get ahead of him.
Performances
Kevin Dillon does need to take most of his role from a seated position, not being allowed to move. He does hold our attention with the interaction with the hacker.
Mel Gibson seems to be trying a form of recovery in his career. Taking the supporting role, getting laughs along the way, with the good chemistry with Eddie Steeples.
The rest of the cast is good without needing to go much further with their roles. They don’t seem to end up getting more than the typical roles during a hostage situation.
Story
The story follows a former hacker that is forced to use his skills to help a terrorist. Meanwhile, a bomb disposal expert is trying to figure out where the bombs are and who is behind them.
This story uses the real-time concept to get the job done, seeing both sides as the incident becomes more newsworthy. It does have an intense feel to what is going on, even if the bomber seems more obvious than it should. For the tidy concept, everything works well. The motivation the bomber has makes sense, even if it is one that has been used plenty of times before.
It will keep you on edge, it is filled with tension, just sit back and enjoy the story unfold.
Themes
Hot Seat is an action thriller that uses the threat of a bomb to maintain the tension in the movie. Our main character is forced to not leave his chair, creating a singular location for them. The bomb disposal team keeps their interactions relaxed to maintain calm while on the job. The explosions themselves, are pretty standard, without causing the damage you would expect.
Where to Watch: Signature Entertainment presents Hot Seat on Digital Platforms on 5th August and DVD on 15th August.
Final Thoughts – Hot Seat is a tense thriller.