“Primal” begins the way that every movie should begin: With a bearded Nicolas Cage sitting in a tree somewhere deep in the Brazilian jungle while smoking a cigar, reading “Real Estate” magazine, and waiting for a rare white jaguar known as “El Fantasma Gato” (“The Ghost Cat”) to emerge from the trees and eat the goat carcass that’s strung up on the ground below. Sadly — if inevitably — this schlocky genre mishmash is all downhill from there, as
The best thing that “Primal” has going for it (beyond its truly incredible poster) is a premise that harkens back to the glory days of dopey ’90s action films — a beautiful time when B-movie directors were high out of their minds on the promise of CGI, and used such digital tools to add new dimensions to otherwise staid ideas. Stephen Sommers’ “Deep Rising” is perhaps the most divine example: Just when you...
The best thing that “Primal” has going for it (beyond its truly incredible poster) is a premise that harkens back to the glory days of dopey ’90s action films — a beautiful time when B-movie directors were high out of their minds on the promise of CGI, and used such digital tools to add new dimensions to otherwise staid ideas. Stephen Sommers’ “Deep Rising” is perhaps the most divine example: Just when you...
- 11/8/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“Primal” isn’t just a title that’s been used many times, it’s now a movie that seems to have put several prior movies in a food processor — to results that are edible, but unsurprisingly don’t taste like anything in particular, let alone induce a desire for seconds. This first directorial feature by longtime stunt coordinator Nicholas Powell stars the inescapable Nicolas Cage (in at least his fifth film of the year) as a grumpier Indiana Jones-type adventurer on a boat with dangerous wild animals as well as a world-class terrorist on the loose.
That this mashup of too many familiar action-thriller elements doesn’t emerge a generic mess is a credit to all involved. That it’s passably entertaining but also instantly forgettable comes as less of a surprise.
The stale musk of bad latterday jungle movies like “Congo” hangs over the initial going, when Cage...
That this mashup of too many familiar action-thriller elements doesn’t emerge a generic mess is a credit to all involved. That it’s passably entertaining but also instantly forgettable comes as less of a surprise.
The stale musk of bad latterday jungle movies like “Congo” hangs over the initial going, when Cage...
- 11/6/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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