Java Heat (2013) Directed by Conor Allyn

Indonesian cinema is booming, so I think we'll also get to see plenty of more movies like this in the future; movies set in Indonesia with also Indonesian actors in but with some international, English speaking, stars in the lead and movies that are also targeted toward an international audience.

Not that this movie has great actors or truly big names in it though. Well, at least Mickey Rourke is still there, as the movie its main villain, to spice things up and make things a little bit more fun and tolerable to watch. He's hardly in the movie though, as often is normal for these type of movies. They try to get a big name for cheap and just only for a couple of days, just to be able to put his/her name on the poster but they are never the centerpiece of the movie. That's always some big nobody, who's waiting for his/her big breakthrough. In this case it's Kellan Lutz, who has played in some big movies, just not the most appreciated ones (the Twilight saga most notably) and never in a leading role.

But what to say about this movie really. It's not very noteworthy and it's lacking some good action and a tight or engaging enough plot. To be frank, I had no idea what was going on with its story. Who's the main character exactly? Why are people after him and treat him like a terrorist? And why does he think he's James Bond/Jason Bourne, by trying to resolve the case and going after the bad guys? And I don't even know what the bad guys where after in the first place, or what their plan was, so why should I care about anyone or anything that is happening in this movie?

It's also obviously a somewhat cheaper movie, which is not just notable for all of its action but with stuff such as its lighting, camera-work, directing and editing as well. This was a cheap movie to make, that got made in a bit of a hurry.

It was also somewhat distracting and annoying how the one moment the Indonesian characters were speaking in their native language, while at others they were talking English to each other, for no good or apparent reason at all. It doesn't exactly make this a very consistent movie.

It overall really wasn't a movie that I enjoyed watching, or even ever had a good enough time with. The messy and uninteresting story was the main reason for this, though there clearly are plenty of other things wrong with this movie as well.

4/10

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