287. Beast; movie review

 

BEAST 

Cert 15

93 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, injury detail, threat

Good grief - what a load of convoluted nonsense

Beast is akin to Jaws but this time the vicious predator is in the plains of Africa rather than the ocean off America.

Replacing Robert Shaw and Roy Schneider are Idris Elba and Sharlto Copley.

Meanwhile, Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries play two young girls who are so ill-equipped to be out in the wild, it amounts to parental neglect.

Nevertheless, their dad (Elba) has taken them on an adventure to bring them onside after the death of their mother.

They meet up with his old friend (Copley) - a ranger who keeps tabs on the wildlife.

He may work in an idyllic setting but his job has become much more difficult because of poachers who prey on the gamut of animals, including lions.

However, one large male has not only the brainpower for revenge but also the wherewithal to carry it out.

Yep, this may be a brute of a beast but he also has Napoleon-like instincts for how and where to defeat the enemy.

Thus, Baltasar Kormákur's movie becomes a battle for survival for Elba's character, his daughters and his best friend.

Indeed, at every turn the lion seems to be there, ready to pounce and rip apart its prey with its huge gnashers.

Kormákur has history of making survival films - his Everest was terrific and in my opinion one of the movies of 2015.

Unfortunately, Beast is well below his par - a catalogue of cinema cliches, a script which is surprisingly bland and actors whose reactions aren't nearly as heightened as they should be given what is happening around them.

It also has the clumsiest of environmental messages.

Reasons to watch: High on action

Reasons to avoid: So many daft cliches

Laughs: None

Jumps: One

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 3.5/10

Did you know? Lions kill between 20 and 250 people each year worldwide. Tanzania has the largest population of lions in Africa. Between 1990 and 2004, 593 people died from lion attacks. 

The final word. Idris Elba: "The lion is a beast. Grief is a beast. Pain is a beast. Survival is a beast. These are themes that, when you look deeper into this picture, isn’t just about a lion chasing a man. It’s about a man chasing his life. It’s about daughters chasing their father. It’s about a family chasing the ghost of their mother.” Complex

Share this post