Heatstroke (2013) User Reviews (42)

Better than expected

[PerpetuumMobile09 · 6/10 · 7 October 2014]

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.

I was hoping for something like In The Blood but instead got more of a hide and seek type movie. Felt a little flat.

[cosmo_tiger · 5/10 · 8 July 2014]

"They looked like they needed help. He said they is a little off the desert." Paul (Dorff) and his girlfriend Tally are taking a trip to Africa. His daughter Josie (Williams) is having trouble with the new relationship and reluctantly is dragged along. Instantly Josie and Tally clash until Josie asks to be sent home. On the way to the airport something happens to Paul and it is up to Tally to protect Josie and find a way to get her home safe. This is a movie that is hard to review. The movie isn't bad and moved at a pretty good pace but on the other hand it is really a overdone concept. The thing that does set this apart from others though is that the woman is the one who has to protect someone. While this may seem like an action movie it is much more drama then I was expecting. I was hoping for something like In The Blood but instead got more of a hide and seek type movie. Not that that isn't a bad thing but it needed something else to keep it from feeling as flat as it did. Overall, nothing amazing but nothing awful either. Really just a movie to put in when you have nothing else to do. I give it a C+.

An uneven effort that succeeds at some levels - the deep faults are surprisingly ignorable

[lhunt-9 · 4/10 · 25 October 2014]

OK. Let's start with the weaknesses. Formulaic plot. Jarring gaps in narrative. Stereotyped bad guys. Dumb behaviour causing the thematic problem. Now that that's out of the way, the scenery is fascinating, and the two female leads are absolutely fine in carrying out their roles. This is a part of the world we rarely see in film, and the settings are edifying. Also, the scientific material on hyenas is very interesting, and the development of a theme around their behaviour is pretty clever. This is a deeply flawed movie, but I didn't find it that hard to watch, and my memories of having seen it are mostly positive. It's worth watching if you're interested in African settings, animal behaviour and/or general adventure themes.

Stephen Dorff fans expecting a Stephen Dorff actionthriller are setting themselves up for a disappointment

[Seth_Rogue_One · 3/10 · 1 September 2014]

This movie could be used in filmclass on how not to make an effective dramathriller.

The first third establishes Stephen Dorff as the main lead, at that point of the movie it's a familydrama.

That changes though in the second third, where without spoiling anything "something happens" and Stephen Dorff "dissappears from the movie".

Which of course is a surprise as the movie markets itself as a Stephen Dorff-movie on the cover and he's the dominating force in the first third as well as said.

He's also sporting a gun in the cover to make you believe it's a actionthriller but in the movie he does not have a gun, he plays a very non-threatening hyena expert.

The movie then pretty much out of the blue turns into a thriller with Dorff's girlfriend and daughter trying to escape badly written stereotypical "bad guys" played by Peter Stormare (who could play a role like this in his sleep) and 2 unknowns.

The acting overall is uninspired and occasionally just plain bad, the kid does try and gets it right occasionally but she can't save this movie although I'm sure in another movie with the right director she can shine but it's just a lackluster production overall.

3.5 out of 10 from me, there are hints that there are some talent involved, but overall it just fails to entertain and make you care about what's gonna happen.

Stephen Dorff does not touch a gun

[jennysgervais · 3/10 · 27 June 2018]

The cover photo of this movie deeply offends me. The guy at no point does anything remotely similar to holding a gun and defending his family. The cover should be his girlfriend holding a gun...that would make sense. Instead shes pictured hiding behind him?! Is that supposed to sell more movies? Are people still that sexist? If you are then don't bother, this movie is about a woman and a girl. Not a very good one either.

Don't Expect too much!

[bsamontinajr · 5/10 · 14 July 2014]

I expect too much from this movie because I know the actors who did lots of good movies or TV series before. But I was wrong to expect too much from this one. I ended up like "only that happened?", "was that it?", "seriously?", and so on. Although I must admit to myself that I was curious on how they will survive that's why it kept me watching and waiting but after seeing how the movie ended, oh man, really??? was that it?? are you serious?? The ending was not that breathtaking. And some scenes are predictable. It runs first in your mind what will happen before it happens in the movie. So good luck if you want to give a shot on this movie. If you do, don't expect too much, you will be disappointed in the end.

This movie gave me a "Heatstroke"

[kenn-alcantara · 6/10 · 26 June 2014]

Allow me to tell you that this movie will give you delight because of the actors but will give you anger because of its dull, nonsense story line.

From the first minutes, I thought that this movie is worth it. Once I saw the faces of the leading actors acting in their natural way I was already starting to get hooked but as the story progresses I was slowly losing my interest to it. I only finished it for the sake of having it started. What makes this movie worse is the poor cinematography and poor script resulting in a dull, unemotional scenes. I was expecting more emotions especially that it came from a novel but sadly the creators didn't meet that expectation of mine, but only the actors, I salute them for giving a superb performances, especially for Maisie Williams for making me hate her role.

I do not want to give any more plot points that made me dislike this movie. If you want some fast-paced, thrilling movie then see it for yourself but if your interest requires a distinct, sensible story line then don't waste your time watching this.

I rate this 6 out of 10

Heatstroke? Hardly so! Turned out to be a mild sun burn at worst...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 8 November 2016]

I sat down to watch "Heatstroke" purely because I had the chance and it was readily available. It wasn't a movie that I had any plans to watch, just happened to come by it by sheer random luck. And I didn't have any expectations to it, nor did I know what it was about; although I had somewhat thought it might have been a disaster movie with the title "Heatstroke".

And now having seen the movie, it most definitely wasn't a disaster movie. It was an action thriller of sorts. Although, if I have to be honest, then it was fairly scarce on the thriller aspect. And actually equally so on the action part.

This is the story of unruly teenager Josie (played by Maisie Williams) who travels to Africa with her father Paul (played by Stephen Dorff) and his new girlfriend Tally (played by Svetlana Metkina). Here she doesn't find the closeness to her father that she is looking for, and she has to return home to the United States. However, something happens on the way back to the airport, and Josie wakes up bloody and confused in an overturned car, with Tally at her side...

I will not go further into details about the story, as that would somewhat be ruining it. Why? Well, because the storyline is rather simplistic and doesn't really have much depth or many aspects to it. It is a straight forward story, for sure, but it was just too predictable to the point where it was a mundane movie experience.

The acting in the movie was good, and I must say that both Stephen Dorff and Peter Stormare really performed quite well here. It was just a shame that Peter Stormare didn't really have more time on the screen, because his character wasn't fully utilized to its full potential.

All in all a watchable movie certainly, just don't get your hopes up. "Heatstroke" offers nothing profound or groundbreaking to the genre. In fact, it is actually a rather generic action thriller, to be bluntly honest. There is nothing here that hasn't already been seen in other similar movies.

Entertaining

[slightlymad22 · 7/10 · 2 January 2015]

I'm not sure about the hate this movie seems to be getting, as it is far from as bad as what some people are saying.

Plot In A Paragraph: Paul (Stephen Dorff) is a hyena expert who is preparing for a trip to the wilds of Africa to research them with his new Russain girlfriend Tally (Svetlana Metkina) and his teenage daughter Jo (Maisie Williams) from an earlier relationship. However things take a turn for the worse when they come across three villains led by Mallick (Peter Stormare) Dorff does as you'd expect, though he doesn't have that much to do, Svetlana Metkina does OK and carries the majority of the movie along with the awesome Maisie Williams, who stops Jo being the cliché of teenage brat/brooding step daughter.

An Affront to the Science of Acting

[quickstage · 1/10 · 31 December 2014]

Wow.

The producers should be sued for illegal logging, as this movie contained the largest display of wooden acting I've ever seen.

Never mind the predictable outcome regarding step-kid hates step-mum, clichéd baddies and plod along plot, this cringe worthy excuse for a movie had my toes curled with embarrassment as planes fly overhead just as people jump into bushes - yet they somehow cannot be seen. Multiple times.

Peter Stormare, who generally plays a terrific baddie in my opinion (Berlin in The Blacklist comes to mind), was director bashed into appearing as a high-school stage actor during the campsite scene when he stands between his partners in crime berating them with a little bit of finger waggle action.

The script was bad, the direction was appalling, acting was nonexistent, even the scenic camera-work I can get on Youtube for free..

The only reason I watched this movie in full was due to sadomasochistic fascination at how bad it was.

Better than a lot of what's out there

[jhartweb · 8/10 · 25 July 2018]

Not sure why so many low user reviews - this is a solid movie. It's worth checking out.

A film which shows if you plan to go into the wilderness, you need to be more than simply intelligent.

[Amari-Sali · 6/10 · 5 July 2014]

As you can likely guess, the sole reason I even saw this movie was because of Maisie Williams, of Game of Thrones fame. Otherwise, there isn't much to sell this film. For while it is slightly interesting the idea of watching people try to survive the South African wilderness which has snakes, scorpions, hyenas, and also humans as threats, at the same time you aren't sold that the leads, especially Williams, are some sort of Rambo types. They are scientist, and this teen-aged girl. But, when people are cornered they do shed their humanity and become like wild animals. Leading to the question: Does the movie roar or whimper?

Characters & Story

Paul (Stephen Dorff) has seemingly dedicate his life to studying Hyenas, even at the expense of spending time with his wife and daughter Jo (Maisie Williams). In fact, his traveling had left his family feeling so abandoned that now he and his wife have separated, if not divorced. And while Paul has moved onto Tally (Svetlana Metkina), poor Jo has never fully recovered from her family being fractured. So, with her starting to fall in with the wrong crowd, Jo's mom decides it is time for Paul to step up and talk to his daughter. Thus leading to Jo joining Paul and Tally in Africa in order to study Hyenas. Leading to a series of events that force Tally and Jo to become closer than they ever would expect to be.

Praise

Just to explain to you how bleh this film is, the Hyenas in the film were more interesting than the actors or story. If just because the use of their laughter makes things so creepy or funny throughout the film. But this isn't to say, entirely, that the story and actors were horrible. It is just Williams plays an annoying teenager so well that you really don't care for her at all when you meet her, then with Metkina, while she certainly does come off as a bad ass, we learn so little about her that this shallowness makes it hard to get into her and Williams as a team.

Criticism

And really, the overall problem with the film is that it seems so basic. Whether it is the villains of the film seeming like American rednecks who've come to South Africa; no real exploration into any of the characters to the point you are given reason to care; and just a general sense that the story wasn't really trying to convey anything. For while there is a somewhat decent twist in the middle dealing with Paul, from there the film doesn't really use the potential emotional impact at all for then these almost cartoonish villains come in and take a huge dump on whatever possible redemption the film could have had.

Overall: Skip It

When Hyenas laughing at the most perfect of times is the highlight of the film, you know the film is a clunker. But I really should have known better since what TV actress, especially of a young age, really finds themselves in a good film when they begin to explore the big screen? So, with this lesson learned, hopefully you can understand why I'm labelling this as "Skip It." For not only are the animals more intriguing than the humans, but neither the story, nor performances, really seek to take back the attention the animals get. Making this to be a sad film debut for Williams, and certainly something only fans of hers will likely ever see.

Booooooooring!

[HairDude · 2/10 · 16 July 2014]

I can tell you right off the bat that I'm not going to write 10 real lines for this excuse of a D-movie!

I'm just going to tell you that the characters are a joke and that the only actor that does a decent job is Dorff. That Russian actress is a joke - who the heck did she sleep with to get that role?! Stormare is on screen for maybe 5 minutes in total and Dorff is only in it for about half the duration... Oh and Dorf holding a gun on the cover/poster is purely for marketing purposes - he's not even touching a gun in the movie itself. Guess that's 10 lines which is 10 too many for this crap! AVOID!!

liberal attitudes, clichés, good scenery

[writetopcat · 5/10 · 2 February 2016]

The kid Josie is a bad cliché of a rebellious bratty spoiled teenage girl. Her dad enables and encourages her behavior by refusing to be critical of her behavior. It is sickening to watch. This liberal attitude of not correcting bad behavior in children is epidemic in films today. It does help the writers develop conflict of course; the stupid decisions which are natural derivatives of liberal parenting philosophy assist the writers in putting characters in trouble.

Being set in Africa, the scenery is great. I decided to watch this movie when I read it was set in Africa; that part of the movie does not disappoint.

But there are scenes which detract from the film.

Talley kills the man trying to kill her. Later she mutters to herself, I could have disabled him, I didn't have to kill him. And this is one of the men who murdered her lover. This is more idiotic liberalism, uncalled for. In point of fact, she was lucky she was not killed by the man, and she only killed him by accident during a struggle for the gun. But the writers felt the need to put some stupid leftist philosophy in the movie. In real life, if you try to avoid hurting your assailant very much you are likely to be overcome by him.

Josie has a fit of anger and hits Talley in the back of the head with a rock because the water hole they found was bad. This is more gratuitous liberal behavior, playing the victim and blaming others for your bad luck.

The teenage angst step mom dynamic is a major plot line in this film. You can tell how it is going to play out; they will get through some life changing harrowing experiences together and wind up bonding.

If you can get past all that, it is not a bad film, but certainly not a great one

Umm why?

[LiamBlackburn · 1/10 · 6 July 2014]

Haven't reviewed anything in a month or something, felt like it for this movie. I listened to the start in the background while I was surfing; soon after I peeked in and saw the teacher in his lecture presenting a film about hyenas. Then I flipped off, paused it, then started it up a couple minutes later to see the most over-used opening scene of all horrible D- - movies. The scene where the main character is driving off to the area where bad things will inevitably happen and in the back seat are his kids etc. playing on an Ipad and looking sour about being there. They then proceed to get out of the car...then the next shot is a clear National Geographic footage excerpt of these hyenas (shot with different cameras, different lighting different everything), then it flips back to the completely fake and ridiculous characters wearing safari outfits. So this was about 5 minutes in.....I turned it off at this point and then came here to rate it 1/10.

THE ALPHA FEMALE

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 5 May 2019]

Paul( Stephen Dorfff) lives, breathes, and teaches about hyenas. His girlfriend Tally (Svetlana Metkina) is a one woman Peace Corp traveling the globe helping people out wherever they need it. Paul is headed back to the grassland/desert with Tally when circumstances and his ex-wife demands he take his brooding 13 year old daughter, Jo ( Maisie Williams) with him. She of course creates internal conflict because Tally is to blame for her parents being apart, etc., etc.

As the film progresses, they come across poachers and are in a fight for their lives as they have seen and know too much. You know the formula.

This is the old two people are forced to bond in a bad situation action-drama. How well you like it is going to depend on how well you like or identify with the two lead female characters. There isn't much else happening. We needed something to bring the film full circle, i.e. something they said or did at the beginning of the film, saves them at the end...and it should concern a hyena...but it didn't.

Hyenas, poachers, and critters were the bigger problems than the heat which they seemed to handle effectively, but I guess "Heatstroke" tested better than "When Poachers Go Bad."

Parental Guide: Infrequent F-bomb, brief opening sex scene, no nudity.

Decent, entertaining family film.

[kevinandmarsha · 6/10 · 2 February 2015]

Not sure why all the terrible reviews. Sure, this is not your typical Stephen Dorf film, but the actors all did a great job -- portrayal of the average American family dealing with a disgruntled teenager in the aftermath of a divorce and an absent father wrapped up in his work, revealed through a (rather weak) attempt of the father to "man up" and be a dad. Sad, but after the mishap with the dad (mentioned in the description), the best thing that could have happened to this teenage female was what did happen -- to be alone with, and dependent upon, the adult female character. Although there are instances in which coincidence is way out of line with plausibility, the story line, overall, is believable. I did find it interesting that we did not see more animals, as we were taken through the wilds of South Africa. The adult female, though apparently out of her realm of expertise, seems quite capable, I was surprised that she was not portrayed as doing some basic survivalist things that even I would know to do. Overall a decent film, not too many boring moments.

Boring, full of plot holes and amateurishly shot

[footyhannah1 · 2 November 2014]

First of all - why the hell is Stephen Dorff holding a gun on the cover. He never comes close to a gun and dies 25 minutes in. That in itself is total false advertising. Second, God this movie is terrible. How they can make a movie like this and have it not make sense is an actual achievement. When Dorff dies, the car rolls immediately and stays there. Then Tally finds his body and his daughter Jo. Soon after, the arms dealers come back and bury the body. Where the hell did they go? At first they make it seem that there was a chase or something, and the guys have followed the trail to Dorff's car and body. Yet there is no chase. He dies immediately. Why didn't the guys bury his body and burn the car then? Instead they wander off for reasons unbeknown to us, probably so the writer could somehow get Tally to Jo. Also, Dorff dies in the spot where a great big dead Rhino is. Where the hell did that Rhino go? It isn't there when Tally gets there. In general, the film is a total snore fest. The first part of the movie is totally unnecessary. We didn't need scenes showing them talking about the trip. Why didn't the film just start in Africa? The scenes in America don't add anything to the movie. The rest of the film, when we actual start getting some sort of action, is poorly executed. How a woman that tiny managed to go toe to toe in hand to hand combat with that huge South African guy is beyond me. It is never hinted that she has any sort of training, yet we are just supposed to believe she magically managed to fight him. She jumps on his back and tries to strangle him with a rope. I doubt she'd have had the strength, especially with being so dehydrated. He then punches her twice in the face, stabs her and kicks her when she's down. Yet she somehow manages physically turn the gun round in the guys hand and shoots him. What?! The dynamic between Jo and Tally is cringe worthy and quickly turns into a lifetime movie. At the end they're best buds but you never really get any sense of them bonding and neither has any chemistry with the other. Maisie Williams - who is usually so good in Game of Thrones - is terrible in this. The scene were Jo breaks down and Tally hugs her would have probably been more believable if there was actual tears coming out of her eyes instead of Maisie just scrunching up her face. On top of that, she doesn't look sad - she just looks like there is the sun in her eyes or she has smelt something bad. It feels like she was focusing so much on doing a good American accent that she forgot to act. And then there is the direction. The scene in the camp when Jo realises the guy is part of the arms dealers is shot like a high school play. The three guys stand in a line and sort of talk at each other rather than talking like an actual human being and facing each other. And the angle of the camera is so amateurish I laughed. The chemistry between Dorff and his girlfriend is non-existent. Svetlana Metkina is a terrible actress judging her off of this performance. She says all her lines like she's reading them off of a piece of paper and doesn't seem at all interested. Her tone of voice doesn't change for the entire movie. She sounds exactly the same when she is fighting for her life as she does when she's talking about an Jo's iPad. On top of that, the writer keeps having her talking to herself which is just lazy writing. Peter Stormare can actually do a lot better than this movie and he's usually terrible too. And to top it all off - the finale is totally anti-climactic and wraps it up way too quickly considering we've all just sat through an hour and a half of the protagonists being chased. In the final scene the girls return to where Dorff's body is buried to lay some flowers when surely the authorities would have dug it up to confirm their story and to do an autopsy. And while they are laying flowers, a hyena looks on stoically in what can only be described as the best acting in the movie. Seriously, this is honestly one of the worst films I've ever seen.

The Cover Is A Lie - No Stephen Dorff Hero

[musiqliblessed · 1/10 · 16 December 2014]

I've never seen as blatant a lie as this in filmmaking. I can only imagine that the producers knew they could not legitimately advertise this movie on its on merit, so they actually took to staging a poster image that had nothing to do with the actual film.

IMDb, however, was more than honest in the plot summary. This is where our trusts must remain.

This is no spoiler because I'm telling you what's NOT in this film and what's not in this film is Stephen Dorff with a gun defending his girlfriend and daughter. Ever! This actually NEVER happens. Stephen Dorff's character doesn't even SEE a gun, let alone, hold one.

I'm actually baffled and appalled. Stephen Dorff, very poorly I might add, played the role of a dead-beat dad with the parenting skills of a dead tick.

This was NOT a Stephen Dorff film. It LITERALLY had nothing to do with Stephen Dorff. This was a Svetlana Metkina and Maisie Williams film. And who the heck are they?? No one good. Let me tell you, I tried to give them the benefit of not doubting unknown faces. But, the best either of these two girls had for them was their ability to shed tears. Other than that, the most flat and ill-fitted actors to be cast in an attempted thriller like this were in this movie.

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THIS SCRIPT!! HA!! MY GOD IN HEAVEN! It's actually cringe-inducing. Seriously, you will cringe at how lame the dialogue is in this film. The actors, some of whom are reputable actors, couldn't even deliver these lines organically.

Just don't pay for it!! For the love of all that is sacred in this life, just don't spend your money.

Better Than You Think

[sure_man · 7/10 · 15 September 2014]

Sveta's character is more interesting than meets the eye, plot notwithstanding. Her attitude towards reality and survival was declared in a few, brief bits of dialogue. One scene where she is beating herself up in Russian, feeling guilty for the death of her partner, comes across as a natural emotional response to a horrible event. The second refers to "civil war" as an irrevocable educational crucible, in not so many words, when she is responding to the kid's question about where she learned to recognize something evil. These bits are profound and convey quite a lot of depth and meaning to a character too easily dismissed by a less insightful viewer.

Entertaining

[dahoser · 5/10 · 6 November 2014]

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.

Better than I thought

[chuckedt · 8/10 · 7 July 2021]

Watched this very late hoping it would put me to sleep. Quite the opposite. Some might say it was going to be exceptionally easy to figure it all out. As a avid movie watcher for 57 years, this film was actually pretty good and well worth watching. Had a theme that lasted throughout the entire film and loved it when I realized what it was. Give it a try, you'll enjoy this film.

above average

[slhma10 · 6/10 · 4 July 2014]

Here is a movie that was striving to be great but only managed to be slightly above average.Everything about this movie should have made for 10 star reviews.The cinematography was beautiful but not stunning...and i didn't even notice it till three quarters way through the movie.The acting was the biggest disappointment.None of the actors seemed like they really wanted to be there...being those characters,feeling those emotions.The lack of strong emotion is why this movie failed to be great.The plot ,without the appropriate emotions to drive it,became forgettable.The closer to the end,the better the movie was,yet it was too little ,too late.Still above average,i just wont see it again...

Overall: "Meh" but one thing ruined it.

[patheticsniper · 5/10 · 21 July 2014]

(Spoilers throughout) Several times they are running away from a plane. It is flying directly at them, and they duck for cover just as it passes overhead. So they are in the pilot's full view until he passes over, at which point they duck for cover just as the pilot's line of sight is broken anyway. And it's not like this happened once, they do it over and over. Additionally, the fact that the pilot is always flying straight towards them from behind. If it were circling in broader and broader paths, it should have come at them from at least one other direction. He also conveniently turned around shortly after passing overhead as well. The only reasonable explanation is that he saw them, but is just messing with his employers by saying he doesn't.

Otherwise, it was a decent movie. The tone of the movie was such that either of the main characters could have died at the end. Meaning they didn't seem to have "plot armor". I think at least two water-holes were skipped over, and the movie would have benefited from a little more protagonists vs. environment, and less of the protagonists being chased by the nasty men. The hallucinations of the father worked pretty well, as hallucinations do occur under such conditions. The hyena being (or representing) the father fell flat.

Oh my, this was bad.

[OleLadyWho · 3/10 · 9 March 2015]

I watched this late at night and I was surprised I didn't fall asleep. But you know how sometimes a movie is so bad you just have to keep watching it? That would be this movie. Wooden acting by all the actors involved. Bad plot, with none of the relationships worth paying any attention to. Hyenas showing up at the oddest, yet most convenient, times. Hmmm, and they are in Africa and unprotected from the elements and the only animal that they ever run into is a hyena? OK, one snake. And I hate snakes, but that wasn't even frightening. Totally unreal.

Did this even show in the theaters? I can't imagine it lasting more than a week before word got out how awful it was. Bah.