Primeval

I rented this movie because I thought it would be a cheesy horror film. It was about a giant killer crocodile! How was I supposed to know?

Anyway, there is a UN mission in the war torn country of Burundi in Africa who have discovered a mass grave.  What they think is a second one turns out to be Gustave, a giant crocodile, and a woman is eaten.  An American news network hears about it and decides to send in a team to capture the beast.  The people who are sent are Tim (Dominic Purcell), Aviva (Brooke Langton) and  Steve the cameraman (Orlando Jones). They meet with a version of the Crocodile Hunter, Matthew Collins (Gideon Emery) and a local guide/hunter Jacob Krieg (Jurgen Prochnow).

As they are making their way to a small village where Gustave's recent attack was, they learn about Little Gustave, a warlord that is trying to take over the country, by killing as many people as possible in the process. They are close to his territory and Jacob tells them they they don't want to attract his attention.  Unfortunately they do and they get shot at during their boat ride down the river. The soldiers that were sent with them fight them off, but it kind of sets the atmosphere for their trip.

There is tension between Mat and Jacob because Jacob wants Gustave dead but Mat wants to catch it. While they are trying to catch it and keep Jacob from killing Gustave, Steve wanders off and films a family getting slaughtered by Little Gustave (Dumisani Mbebe). As the others debate what to do, they are attacked by the soldiers sent to protect them. It turns out they were working for Little Gustave. 

For the rest of the movie the guys are trying to outrun Little Gustave and the killer croc, not really succeeding on either. In the end Gustave kills Little Gustave and what's left of the team make it back to America. And Gustave is still eating people.

First thing, this movie is supposed to be a horror, but it was anything but scary. It wasn't even that gory. There were some gory parts, but they were a little on the tacky side. Secondly, if you want to make a movie about war in Africa don't parade it around as a horror. It was almost as if the giant killer crocodile was secondary to the warlord that wants them dead. I liked the fact, though, that the reason for Gustave for getting so big was that there were so many dead bodies because of the war that he just kept eating and got bigger. It's so much better than toxic waste in the water.

The acting wasn't that great.  Only Orlando Jones was good and I hated Dominic Purcell's character, he was all bitter and jaded and depressing, and not even in a realistic way.

Anyway I wanted a cheesy horror film and I actually got a not so terrible film about genocide in Africa with a killer croc. Close...but so far away.

Grade: 6/10