Heatstroke (2013) Directed by Evelyn Purcell

Didn't really know what to make of this movie at first. The story was lacking direction, until it started to turn into a mostly formulaic type of movie.

Best way to describe this movie is that it feels like a blend of "The Grey" and Ron Howard's "The Missing". Maybe that sounds awesome to some but unfortunately the movie is far from a great or entirely effective one.

Main reason why the movie doesn't ever become an effective one is because of the lack of depth and good emotions. The tension, drama and characters all kind of fall flat because of this, making this a far from engaging viewing experience. The movie is really trying but it's just too hard to ever care for any of the characters or to feel involved with the suspense and drama of the movie.

Another problem that I had with this movie is that there isn't one big constant threat, that's present all throughout it. Well, story-wise there maybe is but in the movie there are a whole bunch of scenes with a whole bunch of different and smaller threats, that often feel too formulaic and predictable. Everything that you expect to happen in a survival movie set in the outback happens in this movie. It even makes the movie somewhat of a tiresome one to watch, also because it often feels like the movie is starting to repeat itself.

Not saying that this is a terrible movie, since it really isn't but it's just that nothing really works out entirely successful about it. It's the reason why this still feels like a disappointing movie, that you can easily skip.

It's still a beautiful looking movie but none of this matters all that much, since it doesn't have an equally impressive and engaging story to go along with it. Besides, movies like this are mostly beautiful to watch because of its environments in my opinion and not necessarily due to its directing or cinematography. I do admit though that I thought that this movie was set in Australia. Only afterward I learned that it was Africa (*insert laugh track*)...perhaps that should tell you something about how interesting and engaging this movie worked out for me.

Again, it's not a bad movie at all, just not one that I could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone as well.

6/10

Watch trailer