Primal (2019)

Directed by: Nick Powell | 97 minutes | action | Actors: Nicolas Cage, Famke Janssen, Kevin Durand, Jeremy Nazario, LaMonica Garrett, Michael Imperioli, Isaac Santiago, Braulio Castillo hijo, Tommy Walker, Sewell Whitney, Leon Andrew Joseph, Sebastian Vázquez, John Lewis, Rey Hernandez, Drake Shannon, Jaime Irizarry, Daniel Salinas González, Pablo Tufino, Lunarena Del Fresno, Brian Tester, Juan C. Defendini

Frank Walsh is a tried and true hunter who specializes in catching wildlife for zoos and private buyers. In Brazil, in addition to more common merchandise such as monkeys, parrots and snakes, he also manages to capture an extremely rare white jaguar alive and well. While the animals are being loaded aboard a shady-looking ship, a unit of American special forces also arrives. Their cargo may be even more dangerous than Walsh’s deadly feline. Prisoner Richard Loffler is anything but a sweetheart. The former elite marine has become a hit man who has committed horrific crimes against humanity. Because Loffler is unable to fly due to a brain disorder but has to leave Brazil immediately, there is no other option than to take the psychopath on board.

But disaster is of course inevitable. The murderous ex-Marine and the jaguar escape from their cages, severely depleting both the crew and livestock on board. An action-packed pulp film pur sang then unfolds. But that actually becomes clear in the first scene of this little work, in which we see Nicolas Cage sitting in a tree with a fat cigar, leisurely leafing through a real estate magazine and patiently waiting for the white jaguar to win the top prize of his Brazilian animal-catching expedition. must be. Cage is given all the space to dissolve his devils and – fiercely grimacing and not without the necessary self-mockery – is completely absorbed in the role of bearded and heavily boozing macho hunter abroad. Sometimes that works out nice, but eventually becomes a bit tiring. The other characters (including a bit too fanatically botoxed Famke Janssen and Sopranos star Michael Imperioli) mainly serve as meaningless film wallpaper, with the exception of Kevin Durand. As a psychopath on duty, he makes the most impression in this little uplifting film.

It seems that the lion’s share of the already not generous budget has been swallowed up by the celebrities who populate ‘Primal’. The computer-created white jaguar doesn’t look very real and convincing, and neither do the snakes that crawl aboard the doomed ship. As an action-packed B-movie ‘Primal’ is entertaining at times, but you always have the idea that with a little more fantasy and better computer effects, more could have been done here.