User reviews

A TVM that has an average vote of 3.6 ! Oh come on guys if this was a weepy drama with Jayne Seymour racing to save little Tammy from a life threatening illness this would be getting something in the region of a 5.5 average . At least some TV company realised that lads just home from the pub deserve TVMs sometimes

Yeah okay it's not an original plot as it features a deserted island , baboons on the rampage , the survivors of a plane crash , a macho man with internal demons that manifest itself as a drink problem etc . If Steven Spielberg directed this movie it would make lots of money at the box office and everyone would say it was a great movie . If I remember correctly Spielberg did indeed do a very similar movie in 1993

If JURRASSIC PARK 4 ooopps I mean PRIMAL FORCE suffers from anything it suffers from some internal continuity where a minor character is all alone and gets killed by a troop of baboons while a major character is alone with the mutant monkeys but for some reason the baboons don't attack thereby allowing the hero to turn up and rescue the character . I also noticed that the scenes where the baboons attack suffer from editing that is cut far too quickly which makes it difficult to see what's going on which is a common problem with these cheap and cheerful low budget productions . I feel no shame in giving this six out of ten

Say what you will, but this engaging and cruddy little film has at least one major thing going for it- Mr. Ron Perlman, the hardest working, most underrated man to cruise the B-movie circuit since Brad Dourif. Plus, it's got a delicious monologue from the requisite mad scientist.

"Radical? I will show them 'radical'!" As modern TV movies go, Primal Force is more of a throw-back to an age when even the loosest, most derivative stories were set to celluloid with an intense determination and the utmost of integrity...no cheap shots or meta-jokes. Films like Alligator, Island of the Alive, and, of all things, Re-Animator had the same sort of consistent internal logic... and the tour-de-force acting styles of Michael Moriarty and Jeffrey Combs compare to Perlman's attempts at rising above the material. It is a modern movie, though, as the slightly irritating, music video style quick cuts and bwaa-bwaa electric riffs very quickly make clear. Aside from these minor quibbles and typical low budget continuity problems, Primal Force carries its modest concept cleanly through beginning to end, trying as hard as it can to make the material fresh and interesting. I've seen much worse on the Sci-Fi channel, anyway.

Anyone who enjoys '80s style nature-gone-wild flicks should take a look at least for Perlman.

A typically low budget, cheesy TV movie monster flick, starring Ron Perlman before he became a well-known Hollywood player. This one feels like a Sci-Fi Channel movie, even though it isn't, and it was filmed in Mexico, so at least it has something going for it. The plot sees a pack of genetically-modified baboons invading a small island, where they kill off anything and everything that moves. Unluckily for them, two survivors of a plane crash are stranded on the same island, so a rescue party headed by the grizzly Perlman is sent to rescue them.

What follows will surprise nobody: the group are whittled down by the killer baboons, while the bloodshed is kept to a bare minimum. The low budget hampers the production values, and the direction doesn't match the story: the baboon attacks are silly rather than frightening, and the special effects just aren't very special. Perlman is the only thing going for this, his performance standing out in a typical jumble of histrionic acting and clichéd situations.

This movie has all the characteristics of an oscar winner. Its a crafty tail of an island of killer baboons. The baboons are absolutely terrifying and I want to congratulate the makeup artist. The acting is also top-notch. In my honest opinion Ron Perlman delivers the best performance of his life. I insist that you rush to the video store right now and rent this movie. It is that good.

A small charter plane has crashed on a banned and supposedly lifeless island, stranding the pilot, a real estate broker and a wealthy young woman. The rescue team put together to go in, unable to contract a professional adviser, as all believe the isle is cursed, are forced to hire the only guide available; a drunken ill tempered recluse, who's spent the last decade attempting to running from the memories of animal experimentation gone horribly wrong. Now, with the recovery crew, he will be going into his nightmare, and it is viciously wide awake.

This is average paint by numbers TV movie quality; dialogue is generally uninspired, sieve-like plot, and characters are stock (the spoiled little rich girl-Kimberlee Peterson, the chatty plotting business man-Richard Fancy, the doctor with a secret-Roxana Zal, the hard nosed tough guy-Mark Kiely, the haunted man-Ron Perlman). The acting runs from so-so to excellent. The camera angles and cuts are very frenetic, attempting to create a suspenseful atmosphere, and there are the obligatory stunt shots in slo-mo. Basically, it's a pizza and a movie evening TV fare.

Ron Perlman has the lead; a broken man unable to have a life because he stayed alive when many others did not. He takes a generic, usually one note role; the haunted man, and imbues him with multiply layers of emotional depth (quakingly fearful yet strong, bravery in spite of moments of cowardice, morose but dryly humorous, fatalistic yet willing to act, haunted but yet still able to hope, etc) turning in a well rounded, excellent performance.

Favorite Line(s): (Matthews/Zal) "They're evolving at an incredible rate! They're almost Neanderthal!" (Brodie/Perlman) "I'd like to get out of here before they get cable."

Worth a rent/buy for Ron Perlman fans.

Primal Force is a terrible movie but it's one of those ones that's so bad you actually enjoy it. Now, Ron Pearlman is a fine actor but this film probably isn't one of his proudest moments.

It is hilarious at times. The 'mad scientist' giving his speech is unbearably funny and the psychopathic mutant baboons will make you wet yourself (not with fear, of course). When you're not dying of laughter, you'll be marvelling at just how bad this films is.

It is awful but I recommend it just because it's so much fun to watch a great 'bad' movie sometimes. If you're not up for Kurosawa or Tarkovsky, some beer, a few friends and Primal Force are a great way to spend an evening.

Primal Force gave me as much laughter as any comedy I can remember in recent years. It was so bad throughout, it was almost good and I HAD to watch it again to make sure I wasn't just imagining it.

There is always scope for a cliché low budget sci-fi/horror/action film to go wrong. If Primal Force was to be compared to meal, it would have to be 'Cheesy Chips'. Students will know what I am talking about.

Much has already been said about the wastage of Ron Perlman's talents on this movie, how badly made it is, how stupid the plot is, how low budget it is, how bad the effects are, how unconvincing the killer mutant baboons are, etc, etc. And all that is true in my opinion.

However, if what you want is a low budget b-movie that's as tacky as fondue and makes you laugh out loud, then this is just your cup of tea.

I feel there is something to like about genre films like this. Primal Force promised to be really bad right from the start and for me it delivered the goods and I was entertained as well as amused.

For all it's flaws, short-comings, it's lashings of cheesy clichés and predictable outcomes, I really enjoyed myself. The mutant killer primates are hilarious. And, then there's the mad professor who's totally lost the plot. His experiment has gone pear-shaped with disastrous consequences. Inspired stuff.

Such a volume of laughter gives me a sense of warmth and well-being. So I thank everyone who conspired to create Primal Force for that!

I was hoping to like this movie. It seemed interesting enough at the start but for me as it boiled down it became just boring. The script was weak. Acting was alright but nothing great and I can understand why I hadnt heard of it before. So off the coast of a mexican island a private plane carrying the daughter of a buissness man, the pilot and the camerma crashes. Aside from a bit of blood everyone seems unscaved but unfortuanly for them something is in the jungle. A primal force if you will some sort of hybrid monkey type creature which i dont understand why they are like that. Ron pealman and his crew are on the way to save them and we ready ourself for some action. Yes there is but its not really that fun. Overall not a overally great movie bug hey ron pearlmans in it and his cool.

No mistake, this is a formula movie. The cynic imposed upon to go on a dangerous quest, teaching the others about the dangers. But it done exceptionally well. Ron Perlman has earned a lot of respect. He gives what could have been a stereotype a lot of character, but it isn't all him. Credit must also be given to the writers, director, and rest of the crew. It was a good team effort. The result is a fun, riveting film that leaves you hanging. The monsters in the case are mutant savage primates on an island. Perlman has dealt with before, and doesn't feel any impulse to deal with them again. He is coaxed into it, however. The story is good. The action well directed, the danger well defined. It lacks the silly blood and gore all over the place all the time that more comically inclined movies have, so you take it much more seriously. The reactions of the characters are well filmed. Stands out in the B monster movie genre.

A incredibly innovative film tackling those issues that the major studios are afraid to discuss. An amazingly low budget film, the fact that the guy from hellboy was in it was the only thing that kept me from reaching the remote. A poor decision.

This film is as painfully predictable as it is financially restricted, with the director apparently unsure as to whether to plunge all of his cash into buying quality monkey suits for his actors/stuntmen or hiring real monkeys from the zoo. There is literally no good dialogue whatsoever. Written, shot and edited like a bad episode of "goosebumps" this is a film whose studpidity is only equalled by the ineptiude of all those unfortunate/ignorant people involved in the production of this turgid piece of action/adventure fun.

So, to summarise:

Rookie Explorer: "How many (killer baboons) do you think are in there?"

Grizzled, been there- killed it- got the tshirt Veteran: "1 or 2 less than a million" (referring to a cave which looks to be big enough to hold maybe 10 crazed apes at the most)

Cut To Next Scene; the cave has somehow morphed into a sandy bunker populated by a strange mix of confused looking baboons and desperate for work actors. They are all then killed having failed to realise that attacking one at a time isn't a great long term strategy. etc....

This film is what "Lost" will hopefully turn into.

I liked Primal Force a lot more than I thought I was going to. The film is about a group of people sent into a small island to rescue people who have been in a plane crash, the catch is that the island is overrun by killer hybrid baboons. Ron Perlman plays the guy tortured by his memories of being on the island who gets brought in to help the team find the survivors. There was both good and bad examples of acting and directing and such forth in the film, but when the directing came of as bad it was because the director was taking risks, some of them worked and some of them didn't but he should be commended for doing so. I was quite surprised how much I got into the film towards the end, especially as I was expecting something that would raise a chuckle at how bad it was, in the end I found the film wasn't bad enough so that I couldn't laugh at it, but it didn't have that little something to make it worth a strong recommendation. So if you want a little action thrills with a bit of cheese, this could be for you.

Yes... it's another one of those "I can't believe somebody actually thought this would be a good film" movies. Admittedly, the premise is deliciously ludicrous (clean cut Americans menaced on godforsaken island by mutant killer baboons!) but once the film starts you realise that 'Primal Force' is BEYOND bad. The characters are ridiculous simpering idiots... their actions are completely schitzophrenic. One minute they are running frantically from a location in fear for their lives, another they are sitting calmly back in the same spot they were running from beforehand. Who wrote the script to this thing? One of the characters knows about the killer baboons, but rather than warning anybody else ("Um, did I mention this island is populated by mutant killer baboons?") he decides to keep quiet and occasionally deliver gruff hints at the carnage to follow ("They've shent you on a shooicide mission"). And the baboons themselves? Well, you'de think they would make them look mutant... indeed, some good costume design and effects work could possibly have saved the movie... but instead they simply make the baboons look like, well, your every day baboon. All in all, Primal Force is clearly an attempt at Jurrassic Park, only with men in monkey suits. It's irredeemably inept scripting and it's dull and predictable plot developments make it one of the worst of the generally dire 'evil creatures' films. Please don't waste your life watching this. Unless your an acute masochist with a penchant for bog standard nature gone wrong flicks. In which case it might be exactly your kind of thing. Worse than Deep Rising. And that's saying something.

The movie isn't very good. The baboons are ludicrous. No one survives a fight with a regular baboon, much less a huge mutant. But Ron Perlman is a fine actor, and that made it worth watching. Another example of his talent wasted on inferior material.

I watched this movie just because of Ron Perlman but I liked it not only because of his brilliant play. Hard to find a good sci-fi movie but this is the one! This is horror movie that has a plot which is a rare case. I mean, some movies of this type show you only scary scenes, without any explanations what characters feel and other stuff. "Primal force" is a nice thing.

Damn it, I actually had a lot of fun watching this made-for-TV rubbish. Here we have a whole bunch of aggressive mutant-killer-baboons on an island. A plane with a few people on it, crashes on the island and a special force team, guided by a traumatized alcoholic Ron Perlman, gets sent in to rescue them. You know the drill: one by one they go down and who will survive? Watch this for Ron Perlman. His one-liners keep getting better and better throughout the movie! The primates in this film are supposed to be mutants, but they pretty much look like regular baboons to me. Except for the fact that they're extremely violent. The film itself, kind of plays out like a survival video-game: A not too complicated plot, rigged together with scenes where you just have to shoot your way from one location to another. Too bad I wasn't doing the shooting.

Not bad for a TV movie, but - well, could have been a whole lot better, both script and direction-wise. The baboons weren't that convincing either. (Trying to be kind, here ...)

Its one saving grace was a fine, well-observed performance by Ron Perlman as the nightmare-ridden guide, Frank Brodie. Always a delight to watch, he brought much-needed gravitas to an otherwise run-of-the-mill film. Haunted, grouchy and cynical, he shone in a cast that was generally lack-lustre.

Great star - shame about the movie.

Who doesn't love killer baboon movies? The best is the Shadow of Kilimanjaro. Love that one. This was the first movie Dad & i had watched with Perlman. It was love since then. Dad, was not good on names so Perlman to him was my big jawed goon. The baboons are interesting. There's a lot wrong with this but hey Perlman & baboons why else would you watch this? They get the stars.

I thought it was great , despite the terrible acting and corny dialogue !

That's what makes it so much fun , plus the fact that I am a sucker for Ron Pearlman movies.

I have to say , those baboons freaked me out, they were savage, I would'nt fancy my chances against one of them in a dark alley !!

There was plenty of action , tense moments , and I was getting very nervous towards the end .............Run Run Run !

Great entertainment for an early evening !!!

I remember catching this Awesome little t.v movie late one night on the sci-fi channel & as soon as i saw the great Ron Perlman was in it i had to watch it!!! I've seen this lots of times now & always enjoy it so much as it's a pure 90's creature adventure film like what was coming out all through the 90's with films like "Jurassic Park" & it's sequel "The Lost World" & "Congo" Among others, i have always loved Ron Perlman too & loved him in the underrated but excellent "Alien Resurrection" & "Sleepwalkers" & then onto the excellent "Blade 2" & his fantastic "Hellboy" films, Ron Perlman is such a rugged & interesting character actor who sometimes is given a rare lead role Like he got here with "Primal Force" & when Perlman is on screen he's a pleasure to watch with his Awesome deep gravelly voice & so recognisable rugged features & tall frame, he makes a Cool tough action hero & here he plays one of his best characters as he's given the movie as the main lead (even if it's only a cheap t.v film he's great) he plays troubled guide "Frank Brodie" who is hired to help find & rescue a crashed plane & it's victims who are stranded on a Mexican island overrun with killer mutant baboons, this is a dangerous rescue mission type adventure film with great old school men in monster costumes rather than c.g.i & the fx look great!!! The mutant baboons are viscous & angry & the small cast are all fine for this type of low budget film but it's all given higher quality because of the great B-movie star "Ron Perlman" & he gives such a good solid & serious performance & makes his "Frank Brodie" character a man you can trust & is tough as hell but also very cut up inside & troubled by his own past with the island. There's some cool kill scenes & some Awesome action scenes & a nice lost tropical atmosphere, it's just so enjoyable & an easy watch.

All in all "Primal Force" is a fun 90's creature feature adventure flick with an excellent performance & lead from Ron Perlman!!! Just enjoy

A much-told story, a reluctant direction, some incompetent actors... Primal Force never seemed something unusual than a cheap TV feature. Basically the plot is a cheaper modification of Michael Crichton's Congo... where Perlman stars as a macho, experienced hunter and guide.

The movie, however easy the plot is, could be made better. It is not, mostly due to casual production. There should have been use of a little more money, with a bit more tolerable camera work and special effects.

This is about the survivors of a plane crash and the rescuers who come to escort them back to safety. They crash on an island that is inhabited by killer baboons, and Perlman's character is your stock cliché who knows the secret of the island, is haunted by the memories, drinks a lot, but puts on a courageous show in combating his fears, blah blah blah. The only other character worthy of note is the spoiled little rich girl who survived the plane crash. She could have almost carried the movie if there had been perhaps one more interesting character for her to interact with, but there wasn't. There's also a doctor who says the most spectacularly stupid thing in the whole movie. After finding the crash survivors, and needing to get off the island as quickly as possible to escape the baboons, she states that the survivors are in no condition to travel. Um, lady, the survivors just spent all day hiking around the island. Are they too tired now? It's the sort of stupidity that almost makes you yell at your TV set.

The story wasn't bad overall, but the fact that the characters were so uninteresting and not really sympathetic left me not really caring.

But not bad enough, i was hoping this would fall into the so bad it good category but alas no. This movie was so bad it was bad, but that did not stop me from watching it till the end. It would not of taken much to make this either good as in made for TV good or bad as in straight to video bad, u know the kind of bad movie that your little brother brings home when he has seen all the new releases in the video store and he doesn't know what else to get.

Anyway...

No one should ever watch this movie unless they have several friends over in the gaf and at least 2 or more mind bending narcotics. That may make it enjoyable. Actually turn the sound down and put on some tunes, it makes a good music video, i recommend desert island disks giles peterson Anyhow in drunk and angry because there is no way to get the last two odd hours of my life back so i should stop ranting...

Drunken Irish dude is going to bed...

Rgds John