Killer Heat
Killer Heat
Killer Heat: an over-the-top murder mystery with entirely pretentious hat performances.
When you have the likes of Shailene Woodley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Richard Madden in a murder mystery, and is helmed by some talented names who have worked on films such as House of Gucci and Bridge of Spies, you’d thin the project is bound to be a hit.
And fans expected this which is why we are somewhat baffled and disappointed to end up with a tedious, low-budget wannabe whodunnit called Killer Heat. This Amazon Prime Original is no killer in terms of the movie but we are getting ahead of ourselves so let us begin with the plot.
Visually on the paper, the concept is indeed killer as Killer Heat is based on “The Jealousy Man” by Jo Nesboe, starring Richard Madden in dual characters of Leo and Elias, and Shailene Woodley portraying Penelope, a wife but elusive with ulterior motives with Joseph Gordon Levitt as a P. I. Nick Bali who is embroiled in a case where more than what meets the eye.
The film opens with the dramatic death of Leo Vardakis while rock climbing, an incident listed as an accident. Not so, as Penelope, his sister-in-law, decides to hire Bali to investigate further as she suspects that Leo’s family might be hiding the truth behind his murder.
This does not help the fact that the Vardakis family boasts of a shipping dynasty and practically controls Crete. Oh, and by the cosmetics industry’s standards, Penelope belatedly learns that Leo had been involved with her younger selves several years ago and is well acquainted with her before she gets married to Elias.
The principles try to add shades of interpretation to their characters, unfortunately for them the script is as thin as a kiddie pool and so all their hard work is in vain. Bali is a cliché drunk ex-cop who is on his second stormy marriage and works as a poor private detective in Athens. For Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this average project does not help his case, as it fails to cover any of his acting abilities.
In fact, who would have expected that the Y2K It boy would end up transitioning from an actor to Jared Leto’s insane attempt at a biopic performance? Now Shailene Woodley, she could be looked at as spectacularly unimpressive but that relates more to who she is playing than her.
However, there are times we begin to feel that she is lost in her own self and has no idea about the character she has to play. Only one fit indeed in the ‘funnier’ side of the story is Richard Madden though we can’t help but sigh in covetous envy as his Game Of Thrones costars runs projects that earns them critical respect.
In other words, Killer Heat is an insincere film where everybody pretends it’s some kind of an amateur theatre camp. Each scene has been designed and planned that you can feel it is a movie but not a nice one.
Most of them are so tacky that it is bordering on nausea or simply an insult to any decent feels that come in contact with such movies. One never gets the opportunity to be a mentally part of the Killer Heat plot as the plot is trying hard to rip the viewers’ throats for the last shred of common sense.
The picturesque landscape of Crete is stunning and well presented but makes the rest of the movie attempts irrelevant. Particularly with the speech and cheesy scripted lines that will make you dodge the words every time the character decides to speak.
Yet even Gordon-Levitt has problems and expects his thoughts to be put in voice recordings rather than seeking for a more dynamic approach. It is obvious that such a device is easily avoided in the very beginning since it is only in the narration that the viewer can understand what is happening on such a young action film in which for the first half an hour not a whole lot great happens in terms of action.
Killer Heat community is a case of classic casting poorly used; it had a great potential but hardly any risks were taken, let alone any more originality than adding an hour or so of running time to a generic action body for another predictable “twist”. In terms of follow-up to the action-thriller sometimes billed as a police procedural, DO NOT BOTHER looking towards the rest.
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- Genre: Crime, Mystery
- Country: United States
- Director: Philippe Lacôte
- Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden
