Wizard-8 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.

dahoser It is one of those movies that holds your interest but one that I'm happy I seen it on Netflix and not the theater where it cost me what 3 months of Netflixs. Someone said the couldn't figure out where they had seen Josie (Maisie Williams) and then said it was Lord of the Rings but she wasn't in that. She is in HBO's Game of Thrones though. Like I said it's entertaining but not a huge hit, I gave it a 5 but given that it was most likely a low budget film I think they did a pretty good job. I did learn some things about Hyena's, that both sexes have a penis and the females give birth through it. I think Maisis has a future in movies and they all have to do medium type movies before you start getting larger roles in major films.

PerpetuumMobile09 No spoilers in this review, but a brief summary of my impressions about the film: The movie was better than I expected, and I was a bit surprised by the low 4.8 rating (at the time of writing) on IMDb.Granted, it's not a very good film, but it's not that bad either: The dialogue is OK and it avoids many of the narrative clichés you often see in low-budget films (even big-budget films as well), and the acting is (in general) more than decent enough (more about that later).Thumbs up to the screenwriters for at least attempting to add some depth to the film: At first you may get the impression that this is some sort of action-film, but it's more like a thriller with some underlying "family" drama (with focus on father/"stepmother"-daughter relationships).I was less enthusiastic about the pacing of the last half of the movie: I think the film could have been shortened a bit, to add more focus towards the end. I also felt that the foreign accent of Tally was a bit distracting, even though English was not the native language of her character (or the actress herself).Peter Stormare was, as usual, quite funny. It's almost over-the-top, but he somehow manages to sell the performance because it seems to fit his character.Maisie Williams is a young and very talented actress. Her character starts off as an annoying, bratty teen, but the turn of events help to bring her into a more sympathetic light (a lesser script could easily have made the character much more two-dimensional and clichéd). Kudos to Maisie for bringing her character to life, even though she didn't have that much material to work with.However, one reviewer here wrote that "she does not have much acting skill. ... Maisie mesmerizes the audience with her eyes. People mistaken it for acting".The reviewer couldn't be more wrong, in my opinion: Good acting is not only how you act or perform, it's about how you *RE*act. And Maisie's ability to communicate and express emotions via her eyes is one of the very reasons why she's so talented. She listens and reacts. Maisie's performances are also emotionally honest and "real", and it's not often I see these qualities in young actors in their first screen roles.Overall, I think this film passed the "watch clock" or "falling asleep" tests: In general, if a film manages to entertain me enough to avoid these things from happening, then it usually deserves at least 6/10. Heatstroke started of well, and although it started to slow down towards the end, it still left a positive impression.

fiddleferme 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.