For a while, Hollywood seemed intent on casting Jai Courtney as the hero. Terminator Genisys tried him out as Kyle Reese; A Good Day To Die Hard cast him as John McClane’s son. But where Suicide Squad showed a glimmer of his kooky potential as the colourfully named Captain Boomerang, Dangerous Animals makes it clear: he’s far better at playing the bad guy. And seriously unhinged ones at that.
In Dangerous Animals, Courtney is both a serial killer and a salty sea dog — like if Quint from Jaws went full Buffalo Bill after his Indianapolis trauma. His Tucker is a grizzled lunatic with a shark expedition business that lures in lonely tourists — who he then gets a kick out of feeding to the teeth of the sea. Courtney is an absolute hoot throughout the film’s 90-odd minutes, whether leading a threatening singalong of ‘Baby Shark’, barking like a dog (at an actual dog), or watching footage of a vicious shark attack while chomping his own fish dinner. “Tell me that ain’t the greatest show on Earth!” he beams during a feeding frenzy.
[Courtney's] commitment to the bit sells the film’s two-genres-in-one premise...
The film around him is a good time too, somewhat slight by design — it isn’t trying to be anything more than creature-feature meets killer-thriller — but stylish and tense in the ways it needs to be. The characterisation of final girl Zephyr is on the shallow end, though Hassie Harrison gives her real welly in her attempts at surviving Tucker’s torment, and her will-they-won’t-they chemistry with Josh Heuston’s Moses is a solid emotional anchor amid the dorsal destruction. Nick Lepard’s script is well-paced, throwing a few welcome narrative curveballs into the mix, and Sean Byrne’s direction keeps the tension high throughout, aided by jolting edits and clanging sound design.
This is Courtney’s show, though. His commitment to the bit sells the film’s two-genres-in-one premise – a rare shark film that doesn’t try to outdo Jaws, instead using the ocean’s razor-toothed predators to a different end. Whether or not Courtney stays in bad-guy mode, Dangerous Animals is proof that he can really sink his teeth into the right role.