Primal

PRIMAL - Lionsgate

Nick Powell’s Primal stars the mysterious acting icon Nicolas Cage as big game hunter Frank Walsh who, after capturing a one-of-a-kind white leopard, is caught fighting for his life along with the crew of a shipping tanker in the midst of a dangerous assassin escapee (Kevin Durand) and Walsh's deadly animals let loose on board.

Primal on paper is so crazy and nuts it should never work and, for the most part, it lives up to that expectation. That being said, it is precisely that very ridiculousness that will keep this film alive. Cage provides exactly the razor-sharp absurdity expected of him. Notable are the outrageous delivery of lines that are incredibly on brand and result in a magnetic sense of engagement in every backward sense of the world. Of course, Cage's character is not only an alcoholic — an element that serves zero purposes or substance to the overall plot — but a reclusive figure who prefers the company of himself rather than people; two aspects of the role that Cage runs with, in chaotic and contradictory results come the end credits.

Kevin Durand tries his best to evoke the same crazy absurdity that Cage inhabits and, while he comes close, nothing will outdo Cage in his excessive ridiculousness. That being said, Durand does a decent job of bringing his larger-than-life character to a form of reality. His sizeable frame brings decent screen presence and allows him to undeniably stand out, even if his character material is incredibly weak. Famke Janssen and Michael Imperioli turn up as Dr Ellen Taylor and Paul Freed, respectively, two characters on board to study and subdue Durand's Richard Loffler. Both have little-to-nothing to do and the screenplay can't quite justify their roles with any development, depth or reason, aside from catering as plot devices to keep the plot moving.

Primal is available worldwide on Amazon Prime