Swelter

Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: August 12th, 2014.
Director: Keith Parmer
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Alfred Molina, Josh Henderson, Grant Bowler
Year: 2014
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The Movie:

Written and directed by Keith Parmer, Swelter may put Jean-Claude Van Damme front and center on the cover, but let's be honest - he's not in it much, his appearance is only a few minutes long and it's more of a glorified cameo.

The film takes place a decade after a gang of thieves pulled off a heist in which they scored ten million dollars from a Las Vegas casino. Now, not everyone involved in the heist made it out all footloose and fancy free like, in fact most of them wound up locked away and one of them just completely disappeared altogether. The money was never recovered though and now that these bad guys, led by Cole (Grant Bowler), have busted out of the big house, they intend to head out and find it, which eventually brings them to the small town of Baker, Nevada.

The man in charge of keeping the peace in Baker is the town's sheriff, a man named Bishop (Lennie James) who has had some issues ever since parts of a bullet got lodged in his brain. His doctor, simply named Doc (Alfred Molina), tries to help him when he can but seems more interesting in boozing it up. Bishop is plagued by dreams though… the kind of dreams that make him wonder if the memories he has lost might tie into some sort of big time crime that he was involved with in his past? Things obviously get complicated when the bad guys show up, particularly when one of them starts making moves on Bishop's lady friend, Carmen (Catalina Sandino Moreno).

So yeah, Van Damme plays Stillman, one of Cole's crew who fought their way out of the prison to find the cash they know is out there somewhere. He's fine in his role, good actually, just underused. Most of the heavy lifting here is done by Bowler, James and the lovely Ms. Moreno who actually proves the best member of the cast by quite a margin. She's got more dramatic work to do here as opposed to the male cast members who, in grand Tarantino-esque fashion, have to spout off witty dialogue and stand around looking dangerous and cool.

This isn't a movie particularly concerned with originality, in fact the whole thing is really just one gigantic crime movie cliché but if you're willing to turn off your brain, accept the gratuitous flashbacks and occasionally hyperkinetic editing it is entertaining enough. It manages to play out more like a modern day western than a typical action film, however, complete with a gang of bad guys who have ties to the sheriff's past descending upon the town. The movie overdoes it when it comes to splashing up text on the screen to fill us in on times and whereabouts of the different characters but it does a nice job of showcasing its desert locations to decent effect.

The film is frequently pretty violent and it does feature a decent amount of energy in terms of its pacing and its style. Molina shows some pretty solid comedic skills in his role as the hard drinking doctor and steals a few scenes for it. Again, there's nothing all that original about this and really, we've seen this type of things before and plenty of times at that, but for superficial kicks you could do a lot worse than Swelter.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Swelter arrives on Blu-ray from Well Go USA framed at 2.35.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer that generally looks very nice. A few scattered shots look a little bit soft, probably a stylistic choice, but outside of that the movie, which was shot digitally, is crisp and clean and as colorful. Skin tones look lifelike and realistic and black levels are good. There are no obvious compression artifacts and detail is pretty strong throughout the movie. There's no edge enhancement to complain about nor are there any problems with noise reduction. All in all, the movie looks good on Blu-ray.

The main audio option for the feature is an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track, though optional subtitles are provided in English only. This is a pretty active track that makes good use of the front and rear channels in the mix, particularly during the action scenes. Gun shots have nice punch behind them and the levels stay properly balanced. As you'd expect, there are no issues with any hiss or distortion and the dialogue, accents notwithstanding, is always properly balanced and has good depth to it. Alternate audio options are offered in English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, French language DTS-HD 5.1 French and French language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo.

The biggest extra on the disc is a fifty-six minute long collection of interviews with cast members Jean Claude Van Damme, Grant Bowler, Josh Henderson, Alfred Molina and Lennie James as well as with writer/director Keith Parmer.

Aside from that we get a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Well Go USA properties, animated menus and chapter selection. The Blu-ray case comes packaged with a cardboard slipcover featuring identical front cover artwork.

The Final Word:


Swelter is a pretty entertaining modern western with plenty of style, a fun cast and some interesting southwestern locations. It is problematic in that it deals heavily in clichés but if you can get past that and are in a rather undemanding mood, this is otherwise a fun time at the movies and Well Go USA's Blu-ray release is a strong one.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!