BOOK REVIEW: Primal Origin by Jack Silkstone

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If you’re hunting for a rapid-fire action-adventure story that’s more enjoyable than popping terrorist skulls with a .50 cal, then Primal: Origin will be your literary cup of gunpowder. Penned by Jack Silkstone, one of the rising stars in the resurgence of the “guns ‘n’ guts” genre, this novella introduces the premise behind his popular Primal series; a trio of counter-terrorist operators, funded by a Middle Eastern billionaire, form a covert organization that can wage war against evildoers without worrying about government interference or bureaucratic bullshit. Unlimited resources, cutting-edge technology, no rules other than a sense of justice delivered by bucketfuls of bullets … sure, it’s all testosteronic fantasy, but hot damn if it ain’t a full clip of cocked, locked and ready to rock fun.

As an intelligence and covert operations specialist with real field time, Silkstone brings a “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” verisimilitude to this tale, albeit with all elements cranked to the max. With the salty banter between the warriors to the gnarly weapons to the redline-revving car chases and autofire action sequences, Primal: Origin hearkens back to the halcyon days of men’s adventure fiction, readily bringing to mind such classics as Phoenix Force and Able Team as well as more obscure titles such as Eagle Force.

It’s a high-octane, adrenaline-inducing “trigger-pullers operate outside the law to uphold the law” type of story and by Silkstone’s own admission, it’s not designed to be deep, naval-gazing prose—it’s meant to be entertaining. There’s rough language and brutal gunfights and bloody violence and for the target demographic, that’s all you need to know to one-click this book onto your Kindle.

Primal: Origin delivered the low-drag, high-velocity action goods and accomplished its mission—make me want to read the rest of the Primal series. When I want high literature, I’ll grab some Shakespeare (OK, I never actually want high literature); when I want an unpretentious tale of good guys gunning down bad guys, I’ll pick up some Primal. Just kick the action-craving region of your brain into high gear and hold on tight.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sabotage (2014)

Prior to watching Sabotage yesterday, I knew of only two people who had seen the movie—author Jack Badelaire (see his review here) who called it “intense,” and my brother, whose post-viewing text simply said, “Man, that was grisly.”

Turns out they were both right, as I discovered as I sat in the near-empty theater with four other people—two of whom beat a hasty exit right after the nailed-to-the-ceiling-and-disemboweled scene. Hey, not everyone knows how to mix dangling intestines with their popcorn.

As directed by David Ayer (Training Day and End of Watch), this is a dark, grim, relentless—and yes, intense and grisly—action thriller that ranks as the nastiest film of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career. Sure, his movies have always been violent (yes, I’m counting Twins, because watching it makes you want to shoot yourself in the head) but with a fun, cartoonish, over the top vibe to the carnage. With its nihilistic emphasis on graphic gore, it’s tough to call Sabotage “fun.” Enjoyable, yes, for movie-goers of a certain inclination … but the tone is extremely savage.

Sabotage manages to be not only a bruising action film, but also a dark whodunit with more twists than a snake swallowing a pretzel. When Schwarzenegger—er, sorry, John “Breacher” Wharton—and his hard-charging team of undercover DEA warrior-operators steal $10 million from a vicious drug cartel, they begin getting picked off one by one in torturous fashion. Thing is, it appears one of the team members helped themselves to the money before the others could get their cut, meaning a traitor lurks in their midst and loyalty soon turns to mistrust and betrayal.

This is not your standard Schwarzenegger role. This is the darkest character the actor has ever played, his soul deeply scarred by the hellish trauma of his past. He is haunted, consumed, wounded, an ass-kicker whose ass has been kicked by life. It’s not a remarkable performance when judged by traditional acting values, but it’s a superlative performance for Schwarzenegger. The larger-than-life invulnerability on which he built his legend is eschewed here in favor of a character that is angry, vulnerable, and twisted.

While the action is not wall-to-wall, there is more than enough door-busting, bullet-blasting, blood-spurting violence to satisfy fans of the guns ‘n’ guts genre. For being a bunch of federal agents, Breacher’s Special Operations Team doesn’t seem all that interested in arresting anyone, but they are very interested in putting bodies on the floor, autofire style. Explosions, gunplay, bad guys biting the dust … yeah, it’s all here.

The directing style is as grim and gritty as the script, with minimal flash (well, unless you count the flash-bangs). Ayer seems a bit overly enthusiastic about grinding our faces in the gore, but in this era of clean, sanitized PG-13 action movies, I personally enjoyed seeing hard-R sensibilities embraced with such unfettered vigor.

This is mandatory viewing for all Schwarzenegger fans and ranks as one of my favorite Arnie flicks. Anyone who has read my books knows that I like things dark, grim, and violent and prefer tortured protagonists to unflappable heroes, so yeah, Sabotage resonates very highly with me. Rarely has a movie so accurately encapsulated the term “guns ‘n’ guts,” because Sabotage has copious amounts of both. “I’ll be back” for a repeat viewing when it hits DVD and you should “Get to da theata!” to watch it ASAP.