High Heat has Kurylenko as a Russian chef who specializes in French cooking and, with her husband, Don Johnson, opens a French restaurant. The fact that her sous chef can't make a beurre blanc sauce is the least of her problems: Johnson is into a mobster, Page, for a lot of money, and to get it back, they're going to blow up the restaurant and collect the insurance money. The thing is though, seldom do Russians in movies not have a KGB past, and Kurylenko is no exception, so when Page's men come in to set the restaurant ablaze, she dispatches them, Plus Page's other men. She knows she'll need help, so she calls in an old friend--who may or may not be a friend--and that friend brings her husband and their twin teen daughters to help Kurylenko defend her restaurant. Page and his baddies won't know what hit them.
This is more comedy than action, and if you go in knowing that, I think you'll be okay. The action is pretty solid--though Will and I remarked that not enough was done with the kitchen space to make the action more inspired and dynamic; and the comedy works for the most part, though it leans pretty heavily on irony, which can wear on you a bit. We also get really good performances, especially from Kurylenko, Johnson, Page, and then Kurylenko's old spy buddy, played by Kaitlin Doubleday, and her husband, played by Chris Diamantopolous--you might say he's the "topolous!" The other thing that I think's important about this, is it's made with a level of earnestness that, in this age of things pushed out there in an assembly line fashion, is a breath of fresh air. Overall Will and I were in agreement that this worked.
We're now up to 4 Kurylenko films on the site, a very low number that hopefully we'll get higher soon. She has an It quality in action films that works to elevate the material, but she also does well with the comedic beats in something like this. I don't think this works on the levels it does if she's not in the lead, which I think is the sign of a true star. The fact that she doesn't quite have the recognition she should was a reason why I came to Will to discuss her on the pod, because I knew he was already a fan. I was looking at what she has coming out soon, and one is a Chinese film called Fox Hunt that stars one of my favorite actors, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, that I can't wait to see, plus she has one coming this November, another Jesse V. Johnson collaboration, Boudica: Queen of War. Beyond that, we also have all the films in her back catalog that we haven't done yet that we need to catch up on. It'll be fun to see what she has next for us.
This is not our first time seeing Don Johnson on the site, that would be Machete, but this is his first DTV flick. Here he plays more of a cheeseball, which is interesting, because I know him as Sonny Crockett on Miami Vice, one of, it not my favorite TV show of all time. Looking at his IMDb bio, he seems to have a way of fading a bit in his career, only to get a supporting role in another big film, like Machete or Django Unchained, or most recently Knives Out. This film gives us some insight into why: he can play a lot of different parts, and play them well. As an aside, if you haven't seen Miami Vice in a while--or ever--in the States it's currently free to stream on Tubi. It's more than just pastels, it's slick and engaging film noir, with great performances, fun guest stars, and a fantastic soundtrack.
If you've been rockin' with the DTVC for some time, you may know of my past as a wrestling fan, especially in the late 90s when my friends and I would watch WCW Monday Night Nitro, and the DTV films that TNT would show after it. It played a big part in my love of DTV flicks that inspired the creation of this site. One of the biggest storylines that played out during that time was "Diamond" Dallas Page and his buddies getting a ref to throw a match in his favor against "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan and his NWO gang, making Page the champion. During an episode of Monday Night Nitro, he lost the belt early on, and, knowing that belts can't be moved during non-Pay-Per-View events, I correctly predicted that Page would win it back before the end of the show, and I was right. What I didn't expect was that he'd call himself the "two-time champ," saying "two-time, two time" in this high-pitched voice. It was something my buddies and I imitated for weeks after, and seeing him in this film brought back those memories. "Two time, two time!"
Finally, I minored in German in undergrad, 21 years ago now, and while I've forgotten a lot of it, one thing I do remember is that the word "hostess" is a false cognate that in English means a female front of house staff member at a restaurant who handles reservations and seats people, but in German means a high-end prostitute. As you can imagine, it could create a bit of confusion when German tourists are in the States and someone tells them "your hostess will be with you in a moment" or "your hostess will seat you now." Anyway, in this film, Don Johnson walks their restaurant's front of house manager to her car, a position that would have been called the "hostess" in the past, and when they get to the parking garage, they're confronted by Page's son and his other goons, and the son asks if she's Johnson's prostitute. I don't know if the joke was made on purpose, but I appreciated that it dovetailed with my German minor, something I use very seldom now.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As of right now, this is available to rent here in the States. I think it's better as a free streamer or as part of a streaming package you already pay for, so hopefully Tubi or Hulu will get a hold of it for you. In the meantime, check out the podcast episode Will and I did a couple months ago. It was a lot of fun, and gave Kurylenko the shine she deserves.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15721088
And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, Holtman Arms, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!
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