A Muslim detective teams with an American posing as a graduate student to find the man behind a series of deadly terrorist bombings in Indonesia. Story centers on the aftermath of a suicide bombing in Indonesia, where a reckless American posing as a grad student is bent on vengeance but quickly finds that the world's problems can't be solved with violence alone. A mysterious American Marine/FBI agent Jake Travers (Kellan Lutz) teams with a Muslim cop Hashim (Ario Bayu) to hunt down a dangerous international jewel thief Malik (Mickey Rourke) who kidnaps a Sultan's daughter Sultana (Atiqah Hasiholan) in a plot to steal the royal treasury: exotic intrigue amid ancient palaces, mosques, temples, subterranean labyrinths and stone pyramids in the heart of Java. The photography is great! And that is the only positive thing that I can muster up about Java Heat. Kellan Lutz plays Jake Wilde a military man who visits Indonesia and tries to figure out who is responsible for the suicide bombers blowing up parties as well as his little brother. Jake is joined in his search by a local Indonesian detective named Lieutenant Hashim played by Ario Bayu. They reluctantly agree to join forces although neither trusts the other to capture the evil Russian villain Malik played by Mickey Rourke.<br/><br/>There is non stop action and if you abbreviate non stop action you get NO action which is more to the point. Automatic rifles appear in almost every third scene and both the good guys and the bad guys have to be the worst sharp shooters on the planet. The director has a tendency to raise the volume when the guns are a blazing most likely to remind his audience to pay attention to his film.<br/><br/>The acting is abysmal but I blame it more on the script which calls for endless gun battles that look more like a bunch of kids playing gangsters in their school playground. The background music I assume was also intended to add suspense and maybe it would have if the editor did not insist on using it whenever the automatic rifles were not flailing away.<br/><br/>Kellan Lutz stars in the film and instead of having his stage name as Jake Wilde I would have suggested he use the name James Boring because that is how he portrayed the action hero in Java Heat. I suggest you stay away from this film unless you want to see some good photography based on the scenery where the film was shot.<br/><br/>I give the film a 2 out of 10 rating. I feel bad for Kellan Lutz and Mickey Rourke…just for having their name stuck on this title forever. Where do i start? Story is fine, kinds make believe but at least it's something i can swallow as a viewer. But the acting?? And what the heck is up with Indonesian police and even the Javanese royalty using English to communicate among themselves?? And their prep work is dreadful…none of the crew seems to have any idea how to properly handle firearms nor do they know anything about the Marines. But then again they don't seem to know much about Christian burial rites either…i mean a Christian being prepped for burial in a mosque?? And one other thing…the clash of conflicting information about everything is soooo saddening. The tongs?? Really? In some small third rate city like Jogjakarta??? Not even the Hong Kong triad would be caught dead there, let alone a major crime syndicate like the Tongs. All in all, i feel fortunate that i bought the DVD instead of watching it on the cinema, because i have fast forward to help me navigate through the dreadful show. Because well…like i said, so many mistakes in the making. The film's anthropological interest in Indonesia is the smartest thing in an otherwise familiar scramble of kidnapped babes, expensive jewelry and millions of bullets.
Carmedelw replied
293 weeks ago