Hot Seat

"Hot Seat" ain't the bomb, but it's far from a bust.

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Those of you who follow my work know I wasn’t a fan of director James Cullen Bressack’s last film, the late-career Bruce Willis-starrer “Fortress.” Lo and behold, I had a much better experience with Bressack’s latest “Hot Seat” (available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, July 1).

Orlando Friar (Kevin Dillon) is a reformed hacker employed as an IT consultant. He’s got a wife Kim (Lydia Hull) and daughter Zoey (Anna Harr) whom he loves, but work often gets in the way and creates a distance between them. When Orlando has to miss Zoey’s birthday party due to professional commitments, it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back and Kim serves him with divorce papers.

Dejected by this personal development, Orlando trudges his way into work. He engages in the normal chit-chat with his younger, goofier co-worker Enzo (Michael Welch, an actor I’ve kept an eye on ever since his rad turn in “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane”). Orlando’s day is about to go from bad to worse when he gets an anonymous phone call informing him that there’s an armed bomb strapped beneath his computer chair. The anonymous caller insists that Orlando aid him in stealing funds from an investment firm lest he blow him up. If Orlando gets up out of the chair, the bomb will also blow.

Police arrive on the scene in the form of Chief Pam Connelly (Shannen Doherty), SWAT officer Sergeant Tobias (Britney Spears’ new husband Sam Asghari) and bickering bomb squad techs Wallace Reed (Mel Gibson) and Jackson (Eddie Steeples, Crabman from “My Name is Earl”). At first the cops are there to assist Orlando, but through actions taken by the anonymous caller they begin to believe the perilous IT professional is actually the perpetrator. Tobias wants to take Orlando out, Reed and Jackson want their shot at disarming the bomb and Connelly is left weighing both options.