Primitive War (2025)

Like many people, I didn't expect much from Primitive War, a film easily described as part Vietnam war movie, part Jurassic Park. And like many people, I was very impressed as the wonderful end credit sequence started to roll. It's overlong, not all of the characters stand out as individuals, and the screenplay, co-written by Ethan Pettus and director Luke Sparke, is full of lines you have heard in every other war movie, but it's more fun than Jurassic World: Rebirth, on a budget of less than 5% of that franchise instalment.

Ryan Kwanten is the biggest name here (well, Jeremy Piven is also in the cast, but he's used sparingly in a few scenes that bookend the main action). Kwanten plays Baker, a man leading his platoon through a jungle valley that turns out to have a number of unexpected dinosaurs roaming around. It's all down to a military plan, and those dinosaurs may end up wanted by those in power seeking every advantage in the ongoing war.

While I don't know if this was put together in exactly the same way, Primitive War feels as if it is to dinosaur movies what Monsters was to alien movies. Although, and it's important to note this, Primitive War has an approach that is far less coy, with those involved having the confidence in the FX to pack more fun into the whole thing than expected. It takes a bit of time to ease viewers into the premise, after an attention-grabbing opener (much like the main films it is emulating), but it doesn't take any steps backward once everyone becomes aware that there are dinos on the loose.

Kwanten is decent enough in his role, he acts and looks suitably like a typically tired and dogged war-time soldier. Others acting just as tired and determined to escape the warzone include Nick Wechsler, Anthony Ingruber, Aaron Glenane, Carlos Sanson Jr., and a handful of others. While none of them really stand out, they work together well enough to feel like the unit they are. Tricia Helfer plays a woman named Sofia , someone who knows more than the soldiers about what is going on, and she does the job of delivering the exposition and reminding everyone of the stakes.

I've not seen anything else from Sparke, and I don't know if he's done anything else that comes close to being as entertaining as this, but I look forward to what he lines up next. Considering how well this has gone down with those who have given it a chance, Primitive War may prove to be the breakthrough title in his filmography. The pacing isn't perfect, and some failings make it obvious that this is the first feature produced from something written by first-timer Pettus, but the good easily outweighs the bad. You even get some pleasantly surprising soundtrack choices that help it to sit alongside numerous other Vietnam movies with the same tunes accompanying the visuals.

7/10

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Kiss The Girls (1997)

I had seen Kiss The Girls some years ago, or had at least seen enough of it to know how everything played out. And then I forgot everything that happened in it. Or so I thought. As the opening credits started to play out, I remembered one or two important plot points, making my revisit a fairly disappointing and pointless experience.

It's not that this is a bad film. It's just a textbook example of this kind of '90s thriller. They may have tried to get a bit darker and edgier after the success of Seven, almost exactly halfway through the decade, but the basic ingredients were the same. You had a smart detective who could think more steps ahead than the other officers around him (and, yes, it was more often than not a male character in the lead), you had a couple of decent players in supporting roles to provide a red herring or two, and also a main villain, and you had a female who either escaped the killer or assisted the detective, or indeed both. Most, if not all, of these tropes can be found in this film, and in films such as The Bone Collector, Color Of Night, Insomnia, Striking Distance (Willis again), and in a few others. The tropes could be subverted for erotic thrillers (e.g. the detective often being the character a couple of steps behind everyone else), and there are an equal number of movies that are notably different (mainly with female leads, such as The Silence Of The Lambs, Copycat, and Blue Steel), but you get the gist of what I am saying.

Morgan Freeman plays Detective Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist who becomes very personally involved in a major case when his niece goes missing. She is one of a number of girls taken by a criminal who goes by the name of Casanova. Helped by local law enforcement (Bill Nunn and Cary Elwes are here, Brian Cox is the Chief), the investigation doesn't seem to be moving forward until one of Casanova's most recent victims (Ashley Judd) manages to escape from his lair. She's determined to help bring her captor to justice, but can she trust her own memories of that traumatic episode?

Based on the best-seller by James Patterson, Kiss The Girls succeeds most in the casting department. The script by David Klass is servicable enough, admirably ticking all of those boxes mentioned above, but a lesser cast would, I suspect, have left this struggling to find an audience. Freeman and Judd are the leads, the former trying to piece together the puzzle while the latter uses her special position to help the investigation maintain momentum. Cox, Nunn, and Elwes all do well enough in their roles, and there's also a small, but impressive, turn from Tony Goldwyn and an even smaller role for the always-welcome Jeremy Piven.

The second theatrical feature for director Gary Fleder (who had previously done some TV work before delivering the highly enjoyable Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead), this is a safe and competent film that creeps close to darker territory at times before deciding not to wade in any further. That fault may lie with the source material, Patterson is certainly one of those prolific crime writers I can imagine does so well because he doesn't scare away all of his readers but I am sure it's easier to describe something grisly on the page than it is to show it onscreen, but it's a shame that neither Klass nor Fleder decided to push things a bit. Even the one moment that shows Alex Cross being affected by someone who gets under his skin hints at missed opportunities, considering how personal the case is for him (something all too easy to forget for most of the runtime).

I don't think I ever saw Along Came A Spider, which sees Freeman returning to the role, and I know I haven't yet seen Alex Cross. I'll be marking them off the list in the next few weeks.

6/10

You can buy a double-bill of Freeman Alex Cross movies here.
Americans can get a blu here.

Sci-Fi September: 12:01 (1993)

Lazy movie reviewing 101 (not for the first time either) - 12:01 is, essentially, Groundhog Day given a thriller makeover. It also adds an actual explanation for the time loop that the lead character finds himself in, which is one of the plus points in a movie that has a lot of good and bad elements for viewers to deal with.

Jonathan Silverman is Barry Thomas, a fairly insignificant young man who works in an office. He admires the beautiful Lisa Fredericks (Helen Slater) from afar, and does his best to get closer to her throughout the course of one fateful day. That day doesn't end well for Lisa. In fact, it ends really, REALLY badly. Which isn't actually too bad because it turns out that Barry will wake up the next morning and find that it's the previous day all over again. That gives him a chance to get close to Lisa again, figure out what's going on, and stop her day ending so badly. IF he can convince anyone that he's not going completely mad.

Directed by Jack Sholder (you may not recognise his name, but if you're a genre fan then you've probably seen at least one of his movies), this is a potential gem of a movie dragged down by a mixed cast and the fact that it was made for TV. I'm not being unfairly down on TV movies, don't misunderstand me. I'm just pointing out that some TV movies FEEL like TV movies, and this is one of those.

Based on a short story by Richard Lupoff, the script was crafted into its final form by Jonathan Heap and Philip Morton, and it does a decent enough job of quickly setting up the many touchstones that Barry will use to keep track of his time loop. It's just a shame that a number of moments feel, necessarily, a bit rushed and hard to believe. I'm not on about the general premise, but more the way in which Barry engineers his day to get closer to Lisa on a number of occasions.

It doesn't help that Silverman just isn't all that good in the lead role. He's not exactly useless, it's just that he's not that special. His attempts at charm and humour never feel all that charming or amusing, leading to that disbelief I mentioned whenever he gets closer to the woman he's taken such a shine to. Slater has never been that great an actress, from my limited exposure to her work, and continues to stay at a level of decidedly average here. Martin Landau and Jeremy Piven, however, are both on hand to help save the day. They may be playing vastly different characters, but both men help lift up the movie whenever they're onscreen. Nicolas Surovy, Robin Bartlett and Glenn Morshower also do pretty well, although they have much less screentime.

While the film is full of little touches that drag it down, the central premise is enough to keep it above-average. The science, despite being pure hokum (from what I can tell), is sketched out well enough, the pacing is brisk enough, and the third act should please all but the grouchiest of viewers.

6/10

Ouch, a bit pricey but here it is - http://www.amazon.com/12-01-Helen-Slater/dp/B000BZN1NM/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1411246772&sr=1-1&keywords=12+01