X
- 2019
- R
- Lionsgate Home Entertainment
- 1 h 37 m
- 2019
- R
- Lionsgate Home Entertainment
- 1 h 37 m
Summary When Frank Walsh (Nicolas Cage), a hunter and collector of rare and exotic animals, bags a priceless white jaguar for a zoo, he figures it’ll be smooth sailing to a big payday. But the ship bearing Frank’s precious cargo has two predators caged in its hold: the cat, and a political assassin being extradited to the U.S. After the assassin...
Directed By: Nick Powell
Written By: Richard Leder
- 2019
- R
- Lionsgate Home Entertainment
- 1 h 37 m
- 2019
- R
- Lionsgate Home Entertainment
- 1 h 37 m
Primal
32
4.1
Where to Watch
Summary When Frank Walsh (Nicolas Cage), a hunter and collector of rare and exotic animals, bags a priceless white jaguar for a zoo, he figures it’ll be smooth sailing to a big payday. But the ship bearing Frank’s precious cargo has two predators caged in its hold: the cat, and a political assassin being extradited to the U.S. After the assassin...
Directed By: Nick Powell
Written By: Richard Leder
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
32
9% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
36% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
55% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 11 Critic Reviews
32
9% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
36% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
55% Negative
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
Recent complaints about action flicks with no action can be ameliorated by Primal, a white-knuckle thriller with a thrill a minute. Nicolas Cage delivers his best performance in years.
At times, watching Nic Cage over emote every single line and bad guys get iced by killer monkeys is as sublime as it sounds.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
4.1
20% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
47% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
33% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
4.1
20% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
47% Mixed
7 Ratings
7 Ratings
33% Negative
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
Primal is a surprisingly solid VOD action/thriller fare, with Cage/Durand at their best in awhile with a great premise.
7.8/10 Cage is in a LOT of films and is usually giving his standard insane brilliance to his roles which keeps fans watching. Now not all of these usually VOD Cage films are always executed well/serviceably in production/direction/writing which isn't surprising. This film is for the most part a well paced intense solid action film that utilizes Cage well as the protagonist with a very interesting setting and set of supporting characters. Aside from some cheesy yet passable dialogue/cgi, I found myself enjoying this and being reminded of action films of the past that don't seem to be prominent anymore that had gusto, brutality, and overall ballistic ridiculousness. It's a fun action that feels straight out of 1995 and finding out that it was actually written then makes perfect sense. Don't believe the typical low ratings by people who haven't even seen the film and bad VOD stereotypical reviews given by uptight "critics". This is easily the best Cage film I've seen in awhile, and honestly a fine action film.
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One hires Cage for a generic timewaster like this in the hope that he’ll make it at least a little more interesting on screen than it was on paper, by virtue of some crazed facial expressions and off-the-wall line readings, but he evidently wasn’t in the experimenting mood.
Granted, the movie does feature a few endearingly goofy scenes where Cage acts like Humphrey Bogart, with sweat on his brow, a stogie in his mouth, and a haughty putdown for anybody who makes eye contact with him. But he basically already did that in Paul Schrader’s underwhelming 2016 Ed Bunker adaptation “Dog Eat Dog.”
Primal ends up being more exhausting than awesome.
Not even a fun premise and a talking parrot sidekick can save the movie from its low budget, general lethargy, and abject lack of craft.
There is a limit to the redemption Nicolas Cage can grant a terrible movie, and Primal is it.
90 minutes of infinitely inexiplicably bad decisions with a few good actors (who have better things to do) and some 1990s level cgi.
1 star instead of 0 because the villain does a remarkably fantastic job playing an omnipotent stealth genius assassin psychopath god while everyone else do progressively stupid things and put up no challenge for him.
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You can tell from the first 20 minutes alone that they're trying hard to make that minimal 90-minute runtime and it shows. There's no depth to the story, which plays out as predictably as you would expect it to. This is the kind of trash you expect from a straight-to-video release. Not worth watching.
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Production Company
Daniel Grodnik Productions,
Wonderfilm Media,
Imprint Entertainment,
Aperture Media Partners,
Blue Rider Puerto Rico,
Gum Media Partners,
Pimienta,
Premiere Pictures,
The Exchange
Release Date Nov 8, 2019
Duration 1 h 37 m
Rating R
Tagline Survival gets wild.
