Swelter (2014) Reviews

• Started decent, went downhill

  Zubacz2014-06-19

  Having seen the trailer, I gave this film a shot. In the beginning, I wasn't disappointed. The first few scenes were quite good, obviously imitating the cool atmosphere of films by Tarantino and Rodriguez. This lasted only for the first 10 minutes though. The rest of the film dragged on to include family drama, ridiculous array of stand-offs and completely illogical character decisions. The actors could have probably managed a more believable performance, since the cast was decent, but they had nothing to work with. The initially cool and skilled outlaws break down into randomly psychotic, calm, honourable, greedy, sadistic or thoughtful, at the drop of a hat, from one scene to another. I cannot recommend this film. It is a forgettable mess, which after the first few scenes, didn't even seem to try to be anything else.

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• Jean Claud Van Damme & Alfred Molina Need To Be Carefull In Future

  SadnessNeverGoes2014-06-21

  here is my advice to all the big actors who care only about money not their careers to do a low level project once this stamps gets on you it never goes off take Steven Seagal for example a great action hero of our times is doing straight to home video films since last decade,Christian Slater also joined the list now what was Alfred Molina and Jean Claude Van Damme doing here was out of my head these two are the most amazing actors ever appeared on big screen even if they did this for friendship to the director Kieth Palmer or whatever they need to be extremely careful in future. the plot:the story is a rehash of old revenge,betrayal & good vs evil films,whats just happens here is that few guys escape from a prison to find one man who escaped with the cash after the robbery they go to a town where a tough sheriff looks for bad guys. the rest of the film is usual nice people getting in crossfire along with a damsel in distress it gets boring in a few minutes to be honest here people expect too much from the cast not the story in these type of mix genre films i thought JCVD would do some high octane action but i was disappointed he got wasted here. Overall watch Swelter 2014 at your own risk there are some funny moments available but that is not worth the money my rating is 3/10.

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• Trailer looked good - but movie didn't work

  hp-anzinger2014-06-19

  The good: The cinematography is really nice (except for a view hiccups). The bad: Jean-Claude Van Damme does not so bad as usual (isn't much in the movie) The ugly: Characters and story The whole movie doesn't make any sense - not even a little bit. I don't wanna spoil for the brave that sit trough the movie - but its bad, really bad. In this movie you will see characters (yes I mean plural) that have no soul, are cliché, unbelievable and really stupid. And if I say stupid I really mean it - almost nobody of the main characters would live that long if they where like this forever (but the movie didn't mention a chemical plant accident where everybody got insane - so ...) For me it's always surprising to see that really bad scipts are getting money (and we talk about millions) - where clearly no money can't be made. OK yes Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez could make this film work (but hey they would cast the right actors and give them some crazy lines to work with)

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• Script needed work

  bob-rutzel-12014-09-25

  10-years ago five pulled off a robbery. Four got caught and went to prison. The 5th got away with the $10-million. Now the Four have completed their sentences and go after that 5th person. The twist is that the 5th person cannot remember where he put the money. Of course, the Four don't believe him. John-Claude Van Damme is the top name in here, but he doesn't have much to do, actually hardly anything. His name is here to draw us in. I bit. This story is really about Bishop (Lennie James) who is now the Sheriff in Butler a town outside Las Vegas, Nevada. He is that 5th person, and we are led to believe he really doesn't know where he hid the $10-million. We know he is the 5th man because we see him in flashbacks as part of that robbery years ago. This takes too long to become interesting. No one really stands out. Bishop comes the closest, but we see that Cole (Grant Bowler) appears to be the leader of the Four, but he fizzles too quickly until the last 10-minutes. The main guy was supposed to be Stillman (Van Damme) but he just sat around and didn't say much at all. He wasn't "the guy." I think the main problem with this movie is that too much screen time was spread around too evenly and we were at a loss to decide who to key in on. See? But, we still went with Bishop as the main guy. There should have been some cat and mouse stuff between the Four and Bishop. This was like a short story made into a full length novel and there really was no place to go. The plot was a very simple one and there wasn't much material for a full length movie. See? The script needed work and no one took the time to make it right. The acting all around is good with the supporting cast including Josh Henderson and Alfred Molina, but the last 10-minutes is all the movie you needed to see. Everything before that was slow and boring with quickie scenes that sometimes seemed to be unrelated to the main job of getting to Bishop. It all took too long. Oh, you will find out where Bishop hid the money. And, another thing: when you see a movie with a goofy title as Swelter, stay away. (3/10) Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

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• Good - Worth a Watch

  shroyertour2014-06-21

  Back in the day, a movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was an action flick with lots of martial arts. He was the good guy in it. And it actually starred Van Damme. More recently, Van Damme has made some movies with him as a flawed protagonist, and then several more as the main bad guy. This movie is a decent Drama/Suspense film, with Van Damme as a secondary character, and a tries-to-be-good bad guy. He is just above the "character actor" role, probably in my mind only because he is JCVD. The bad guys here go looking for the guy who barely escaped and still has the money, after some hold-up years ago where everyone else goes to prison to stew and fester about their revenge. There are enough variations on this basic idea to keep the viewer interested. Lennie James does a good job as the town Sheriff, easy going, hard to ruffle, and who you somehow know you just don't want to mess with. There is actually a little action here and there, but it is realistic (no martial arts) and serves mostly to add to the suspense. With no JCVD, this would be a movie worth a watch. An interesting plot, with good acting, and nice cinematography. Seeing JCVD do his "actual acting" thing is also fairly enjoyable. He manages to entertain with his french (Belgian) accent and a simmering manner that seems to add depth even to a character that has little.

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