Primeval

jelewis8 — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:45:16 +0000

The trailer to Primeval made it appear to be the odd combination of a Steve Irwin wild animal kingdom show with a murder mystery, which despite the juxtaposition, interested me because, well, I’m a sucker for African animals doing devastating things to human beings. Case in point, The Ghost and the Darkness, which, whilst not a great film, is fun if you’re into the aforementioned animal beats man thematic material. When I saw Orlando Jones staring wide-eyed into the camera just before a ravenous cut to something large and scary rushing at the screen, I was hooked.
Unfortunately, the film is a sight less provocative than its trailer would have you think. Claims that its villain is the world’s most prolific serial killer is a tad misleading, and the film perpetrates the deceit from the first frame, where a prominent human rights activist, investigating a mass grave, discovers Gustave–a man-eating crocodile–by mistake. Cut to a New York newsroom where Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) gets paired with Aviva (Brooke Langton), an animal channel reporter trying to make it big, to cover the Gustave story. Together with Stephen the cameraman (Orlando Jones) and croc expert Mathew Collins (Gideon Emery), and with the assistance of the Burundi government, the crew travels to the river home of Gustave, the giant crocodile that’s killed over three hundred people and seems unstoppable. To complicate matters, a local warlord has named himself Little Gustave, and now holds the entire territory under his thumb.
The movie is paced somewhat mechanically, neither opening up as an action adventure nor closing in with suspense. Instead, director Michael Katleman, with the script by Michael Ferris and John Brancato, serves up a tepid telling of what amounts to a nature documentary gone awry. Whilst the Africa setting is gorgeous, there’s more attention given to the infighting of the group. Mathew has little regard for human life, and views Gustave as a prize to be captured alive and studied. This conflicts with their “native” white guide Jacob (Jurgen Prochnow), a grizzled man who has a history with Gustave, and who simply wants to kill the beast. When Steven captures a local shaman being executed by Little Gustave’s men on camera, the plot becomes little more than the crew haplessly trying to escape both Big and Little Gustave, both of which are capable of killing off all but the main characters.
Okay folks, the acting is pretty bad in this. Orlando Jones is the only one worth watching, and only because he offers comedic relief in an otherwise dull and plodding linear narrative. Given the low budget nature of the production, it’s not surprising that the effects are a bit lacking. The shooting is uneven, moving from polished to documentary-style in places, and the editing is often abrupt and incoherent. Whilst the giant croc is fun to see at night, daylight encounters clearly reveal his CG-ness. A paper cutout might have been more effective.
The marketing of the film as a slasher flick drew me in, but that knowledge left me high and dry as soon as the film reveals that it is in fact about a killer croc. Whilst there is a modicum of social justice thrown in to try and make a moral point, it isn’t quite enough to keep this out of the realm of B-Horror gone slightly south. Wait for the DVD, or better yet, try making your own killer animal movie. You’ll probably have more fun.
Fringe Rating: out of 5

The Cold Goodbye

jelewis8 — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 06:50:31 +0000

It is done, inasmuch as done means “until the next revision.” There’s always edits that can be made to a text. They’re still working on the Bible, from what I understand. A jot or a tittle may need to be adjusted here and there, but from what I can tell, the text is solid.
It’s got a new look, too, different from the two separate books I put out. It’s got a more 1980′s feel now, as opposed to 1950. The Communist red text offsets well with the cobalt blue of the rest of the cover, giving it a sense of menace, maybe even dread, whilst the imposing buildings rise like sentinels, with the illusion of shaking to subtly hint at things to come. The back is far more abstract, dealing with issues of light and dark in syncopated patterns that more or less represent visually the thematic material present in the book. The dark, monochromatic visual should be iconic without being specific. I think, overall, the cover depicts what I want it to without being overly bold or outlandish, rather presenting the material as understatement, leaving an initial first impression of curiosity. What is this “Cold Goodbye”?
The back text explains the barest hint of a plot, along with a selected/edited quote from the book itself which best wraps up and summarizes the main idea of the story, without giving away too much. This was a simpler task to accomplish than you might imagine. Which may not be a good thing, I don’t know.
I hope the full version will make you as happy as it has made me. It’s 418 pages, 6.00″ x 9.00″, perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink , 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink. As with my other endorsements of Lulu, the quality is unexpected in its superb presentation and production.
I may do a bit of media blitzing on this thing for a while, though hopefully I can keep most of it off the blog. However, I do encourage you to purchase this or one/both of the other two books (Apophenia and Caliph) which comprise this full version copy, just printed and published as separate volumes. If you would like your copy autographed, contact me before ordering. We’ll arrange for something. I’m not saying I’ll be famous or anything after this, but I have gotten some requests for autographs already, so I figured I’d throw it out in case it was on your mind.
And yes, I will be famous after this, though not necessarily for this. If anything, my fame will involve a Slip ‘N’ Slide, a barrel full of monkeys, and a 30 aught six. But it never hurts to get a piece of the action before it occurs. Ebay is mighty friendly to collectors of John Hancocks.

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Primeval

The Cold Goodbye