Nerdly » ‘High Heat’ VOD Review

19th Jan2023

‘High Heat’ VOD Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Don Johnson, Olga Kurylenko, Diamond Dallas Page, Kaitlin Doubleday, Bianca D’Ambrosio, Chiara D’Ambrosio, Chris Diamantopoulos, Ivan Martin, Donnie Francis, Seth Andrew Bridges, Erik Bloomquist | Written by James Pederson | Directed by Zach Golden

High Heat stars Olga Kuryleno as an ex-KGB agent-turned-chef Ana and Don Johnson as her restauranteur husband, who owes a massive gambling debt to the local mafia that he can’t pay back. When the mob comes knocking, they don’t reckon on having to tangle with a highly-trained former Russian operative. It’s True Lies meets Boiling Point, as the veritable buffet of bloodshed, bullets and blistering fight scenes plays out as the tension builds.

Let’s get this out of the way first… The fully animated opening credits makes High Heat look like a Hitchcockian wannabe, or a “quirky” thriller a la Don Johnson’s recent star turn in Knives Out. However, the plot of the film feels like someone has watched Steven Seagal’s Under Siege duology once too often and wanted to make their own badass ‘secret assassin’ chef movie – though Kurylenko’s Ana is seemingly based more on the tropes of Liam Neeson’s Taken character than Steven Seagal!

That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the idea, especially given that Olga Kurylenko is the chef turned badass and makes for a fantastic lead. Plus High Heat thankfully leans into the ridiculousness of the story, with Kurylenko’s character beating people up to the sounds of Russian Cossack music on the soundtrack and the film mixing the action with a sly streak of black comedy – which oftentimes feels like a knowing nod to the audience that the entire thing is ludicrous!

In fact, everyone involved with the film plays things out with a similar knowing nod. Yet it’s not played for farcical laughs, even if events that take place and characters in the film – like the family of KGB assassins: Mimi (Kaitlin Doubleday), Tom (Chris Diamantopoulos) and their twin daughters (Bianca D’Ambrosio and Chiara D’Ambrosio) – are just that, farcical. Instead, it’s all played with a straight face, which only amplifies the quirky nature of the film.

In fact, the ONLY thing that eludes to the fact High Heat is more comedy than thriller is the soundtrack, which feels )or sounds) like it has shades of the old Tom and Jerry cartoons about it! Though the fact that one particular sequence, which uses said stylings, ends in a character burning alive should allude to the fact there’s a real dichotomy to High Heat – brutality and laughs.

Together it all reminds me very much of one of my favourite heist movies of all time, Flypaper. Which, coming from me, is high praise indeed.