La bête

I know when the trailer came out, we were all thinking of the GOOD 90s flick with lions in it, but, sorry, this is not The Ghost and the Darkness.

While this isnt in the same league, I am going to be honest and say I really enjoyed it. Its pretty entertaining, decent cinematography, good background music, half way decent jumpscares and thrilling scenes, overall I got a good evening out of it.

Just leave your brains out the door, because you have Mr. Idris Elba try and literally punch a lion in this film.

So fair warning, its a popcorn film, but a decent one in that. 3.5/5.

Other headlines I thought about using are "Rooting for the lion" and simply "Idiots." This movie is so dumb. And this is coming from someone who frequently enjoys dumb stuff. I'm the target audience for this type of movie. Yet I couldn't stop noticing how dumb everything was.

And there is a variety of dumb. The most obvious are the idiots that fill this movie. It's staggering the amount of times a character does the worst possible thing. Don't get me started on the forced family drama. It made me want the lion to eat them.

But the parts that annoyed me the most have to do with the lion. The people who made this movie either did zero research on lions, or didn't care and assumed the audience is stupid. They hope you don't know that cats can see in the dark. Or that cats can smell their prey. Or that cats have a keen sense of hearing.

(Infomercial voice) And that's not all! This lion can almost fit its entire head under a car, but doesn't use his arm to reach. Cats can reach at least half the length of their body with their arm. Also, this lion has a thousand chances for killshots and decides not to take them.

This is turning into a rant, but I can't help it. Cats are lethal predators. Even little house cats HUNT AND DESTROY without mercy. This lion has to be the worst lion in the history of lions. Apparently this lion's weakness is small knives. Ugh. That would be like fighting a linebacker with a needle.

Why not take advantage of the R-rating? This is the perfect kind of movie to go extra bloody and violent. But it's so tame. Why did they CG the humans in scenes with CG lions? It's very noticeable. Why is this listed as horror? It's not scary.

In conclusion... terrible movie. I left the theater thinking 3 stars, but after writing this review, it's a 2. (1 viewing, UltraScreen 8/23/2022)

Beast is a new survival thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur, the director of 2 Guns and Everest.

The film is about Dr. Nate Daniels (Idris Elba), who, after the death of his ex-wife, takes his daughters to the South African savannah to the place where he met his ex. They are accompanied here by Nate's friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), who often leads safaris for tourists.

During the safari, Martin learns that something is wrong and learns that a bloodthirsty lion has attacked the local village and killed most of the inhabitants. When they come into contact with this lion, they are quickly seen as his new prey. Now they must hide in the safari jeep and the lion survive its attacks until help arrives. Otherwise, they have to find a safe way on their own before coming face to face with the brutal lion.

With the 2015 film Everest, Baltasar Kormákur also tried to make a survival thriller about people who tried to reach the top with the cold temperatures around Mount Everest. He had made that film a bit too big with too long a running time, so you had to go through the preparations of the mountaineers for about the first half of the film before they even started climbing the mountain. He provided some long-winded moments in this film.

With his new film Beast, with a shorter running time, he presents a more exciting survival thriller about a family that has to survive in the warm savannah while they are constantly attacked by a lion. Survival thrillers about lions have become more popular since the film The Ghost and The Darkness, but with films such as Prey from 2016 or Rogue from 2020, due to lesser storylines or visual effects, they have always been difficult to succeed. Despite the fact that Beast has a simple story with the accompanying clichés from survival thrillers and also has nice, but not always the most believable visual effects, they still manage to provide an entertaining and exciting survival thriller.

Idris Elba manages to carry the film well as the main character, who tries to improve the bond with his estranged daughters after a tragic experience. Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries also know how to portray the two daughters in an appropriate way. One does have more acting experience than the other, but this is also due to the standard story of the film. It is also nice to see the South African actor Sharlto Copley in this film as a South African safari guide, who knows the areas and animals well.

Beautifully shot in the real African savannah, the film shows beautiful images of these landscapes and of the different animal species that live here. This way the film can come across as if you are really on a safari in the African savannah and you will also learn the necessary information about these areas and animal species. The film also responds somewhat to the current problems of the African natural landscapes and the different animal species that live here. So they try to draw some attention to this.

Ridiculous, annoying actor/character actions will make you want to feed these people to the lion. Especially the older daughter. I've not been this annoyed by a character in a long time. I think we are supposed to feel for her plight and her fear but all I wanted to do was to make her shut up. Even before the lion came.

And then There are the contrivances that are necessary because had these characters had brains they wouldn't be in as much trouble. We are a step Ahead of every jump scare, every plot point, every action. It's as if the writer and director have never had an original thought.

I've never thought Cujo was a great movie but at least you wanted the people to survive.

Beast isn't highbrow cinema at all. The movie knows the kind of film it is and then goes and tries to elevate it by coming up with really solid technical proficiency and great acting. The movie is just 90 minutes long, so it knows that it shouldn't overstay its welcome. The ending might come off as a bit underwhelming thanks to its abrupt nature. However, the film is great entertainment and everybody should give it a chance when in the mood for a simple and straight-to-the-point kind of movie.