After the recent revelation of Bruce Willis’s diagnosis, there’s been a lot of questions regarding low-budget movies and big-name stars. What seems to be a marketing technique is that a small-budget film that would not be seen in movie theaters is being sent to streaming services and Redbox services in order to make a buck.
If you’ve been to a Walmart or Target, you probably saw these movies in the DVD section at the store. An action movie with Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson that you’ve never heard of? This has to be something interesting. Then you watch the film and the movie is mostly junk. So when you have a low-budget thriller that supposedly stars Mel Gibson, you have to ask the question, is this truly a independent film or is it just another money-making opportunity?”
Hot Seat is a film starring Entourage actor Kevin Dillon, in the film he plays a man named Orlando who goes to work after a rough meeting with his wife and his daughter on her daughter’s birthday. After settling in for his shift, he receives an anonymous phone call telling him that if he gets up from his chair this building is going to explode. Orlando realizes that his chair has been set with an explosive. The caller tells him that he must do everything he is told or he and everyone that he knows is going to be in danger.
Hot Seat is obviously a low-budget movie, The film is essentially two different storylines happening simultaneously. On one hand, you stick with the Kevin Dillon character, as he struggles with an unforeseen Anonymous hacker who clearly knows more about him than he thinks. On the other side of the story, you have Mel Gibson teaming up with Eddie Steeples, who are playing the bomb-squad professionals. Their job is to figure out what is happening behind the scenes before yet another building explodes claiming more lives.
Actress Shannen Doherty has a small role in the film as the police chief who makes the call of whether to believe that Dylan’s character is a pawn or believe that he’s the one in charge and take him out. The film has a nice mix of Veteran actors and newbies as well, and it does an excellent job of putting everyone in their proper place. Given his budget, the film only has a handful of locations and understandably so. However, the writers do an excellent job with the plot that keeps the audience engaged despite the limited locations. The film starts out a bit slow but really starts to pick up speed towards the second act. The film is definitely cliché but it has a solid cast in a good story, which is the most that you can ask from it.
Sometimes you just have to work with what you have available to you and Hot Seat is a film that does a pretty good job with what it has at its disposal. For a 90-minute movie, Hot Seat is an engaging thriller that will keep audiences entertained and keep you interested as the plot progresses.
2.5/5
Don’t forget to Subscribe for Updates. Also, Follow Us at Society-Reviews, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Odysee, Twitch, & Letterboxd.