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Parents' Guide to

Hot Seat

By Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Trapped-in-an-office-chair thriller has action violence.

Movie R 2022 99 minutes
Hot Seat Movie: Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In HOT SEAT, former hacker Orlando (Kevin Dillon) works a soul-draining job at a call center for an internet company. He gets called in to work on his daughter's birthday, and his wife hands him divorce papers. After a couple of routine calls, Orlando plops into his chair. Then a voice rings out over the intercom, telling him he needs to use his rusty hacking skills to steal $1 million, or the hair-trigger bomb strapped to the underside of his chair will blow. As the day wears on, it becomes clear that Orlando has been specifically targeted for this. His family's lives are at stake unless he agrees to be framed for multiple bombings throughout the city. Worse, co-worker Ava (Kate Katzman) has stumbled onto the scene and been taken hostage. Bomb squad members Jackson (Eddie Steeples) and Reed (Mel Gibson) are on the job, but can they figure out what's happening before it's too late?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

A not-bad idea for a low-budget, mostly one-set suspense story turns into a rushed, generic movie, cutting corners and missing potential at every turn, eventually disappearing from memory. A variation on movies like Speed or Die Hard with a Vengeance, Hot Seat suffers off the bat from a lack of kinetic movement, given that it's about not moving. Director James Cullen Bressack finds a kind of middling pace, coupled with shaky-cam filming and twitchy editing that isn't slow enough to generate suspense or quick enough to pump adrenaline; it just sort of elicits a numbness.

It doesn't help that Dillon isn't the most dynamic actor. He has an abrasive, streetwise jester quality -- used to good effect in the series Entourage -- that wears thin when he's in the spotlight. The other actors don't quite seem right either. The villainous voice in the speaker has no subtlety, no control. He just curses and barks and says clichéd things like "Tick tock! Tick tock!" The hostage, Ava, is more of a supermodel than an actor, and she can't even seem to suggest that she's scared. Gibson, of course, with his "old guy" wisecracking persona, is the only one who manages to look like he's having fun. Alas, his partner, a Black man, is one of the first characters to die, which is an insufferable cliché. All in all, this Hot Seat is sure to leave viewers cold.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Hot Seat's violence. How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

  • What does the movie have to say about revenge?

  • Do you consider Orlando a role model? Why, or why not?

  • How could Orlando solve his problem of choosing between work and family?

Movie Details

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