An I.T. worker pressed for time between his job and spending time for his family finds himself trapped by a domestic terrorist with a vendetta. As the local police and bomb squad are running out of time before they can solve the mystery of who’s finger is at the trigger, he must find a way to work through his cyber captor’s demands or risk losing more than just his life.
Such is the wind-up-and-the-pitch in a script storied and written by Leon Langford and Collin Watts for James Cullen Bressack’s cyberthriller, Hot Seat, following projects like Beyond The Law with Steven Seagal, and Bruce Willis starrers Survive The Game and Fortress to name a few. This time Bressack gets to add stars like Kevin Dillon and Mel Gibson to his roster, for a lean, contained hostage thriller that has its strengths in most of its performances, and mechanical flaws in several other areas.
The movie starts off alluding to a wave of terror caused by an explosion and the death of an individual in the attack. Soon after we meet Orlando Friar (Kevin Dillon) who is forced to cope with work just as wife Kim (Lydia Hull) has grown so tired of him that she threatens him with divorce papers for not attending their daughter’s birthday party.
Friar arrives at work where he and friend/co-worker Enzo (Michael Welch) each receive magic 8-balls before Friar decides to take a seat before receiving a message from a mysterious figure who can see right into his work floor. Little does he know he’s triggered a pressure bomb strapped to his seat, and it’s right then that he’s learns he’s been taken hostage with no choice but to act on the demands of the voice he hears in his speakers. With his past as a hacker now firmly caught up to him, he is coerced into hacking and stealing from a bank, and then into the servers of a bond security firm, with managerial worker Ava (Kate Katzman) also held captive after looking for someone on his floor.
Just as Reed (Mel Gibson) and Jackson (Eddie Steeples) arrive on the scene following an earlier bombing incident and are consulting with SWAT as well as police chief Connelly (Shannen Doherty), Friar is painted as the bombing suspect. With tactical units itching to put an end to the situation, it’s up to Reed to be the measured voice of reason with Jackson following suit, and soon enough, while Friar must do all he can to reconcile with the hand of fate he’s been dealt in the last place he wanted to be.
There’s only maybe a handful of CG shots used which are all pretty subpar, but its the performances that help hold it up. The rapport between Reed and Jackson seems a bit forced but it’s doable, and really Jackson is the first decent role I’ve seen Steeples play since seeing him in Dimitri Logothetis’s Jiu-Jitsu. He’s a good actor and I hope he continues to get better film and television roles.
Gibson, Dillon and Doherty work great on screen for their scenes and Welch is impressive for the duration he’s on screen. The writing doesn’t do a whole lot of justice for a few of the other supporting characters at times, and a scene moments before one supporting character dies doesn’t really add up when the big reveal is shown, so the script is just a little bit lazy and mismanaged.
I’m still inclined to check out Fortress one day as I haven’t seen it yet, but after Beyond The Law, Bressack’s output continues to be just as potboiler and nothing really outstanding to exclaim. It’s a rainy day rental at best, particularly if you’re a Gibson fan and you don’t mind part of this film’s plot being a Lethal Weapon 2 fan reference, sans toilet.
Hot Seat arrives in select theaters, on Digital and On Demand July 1, 2022.