Beast

Idris Elba and his daughters encounter a lion in the middle of the African wilderness. They fight it for an hour, supporting characters die, and then what you expect happens. Beast is a cookie-cutter thriller that impresses primarily because of its cinematography and long takes, but certainly not with the story, which doesn't stray off the beaten track for a second. It's not bad, but I can't really think of a reason to send anyone to see it. As a thriller, Beast doesn't have much to offer. (17/08/2022)

Kormákur has always struck me as a more or less competent director who doesn't really care what he's making. This time, however, Beast is just a sometimes unbearably silly B-movie, where you might still enjoy the ultra-long shots that the film is composed of and how difficult they must have been to execute, assuming you could tell they were difficult to execute. Instead, virtually any potential technical problem in a scene is solved here with post-production effects or scenes made entirely of CGI, which of course look terrible. Idiotic B-movies can be fun in that you occasionally think "how the hell did they do that?", "how many times did they have to shoot that?", or "I'm surprised that actor didn't get hurt." When the challenges are solved by computer, all that's left is the idiocy. (13/11/2022)

A suspenseful, technically well made survival thriller, unfortunately with a mediocre and rather wobbly script. Idris Elba and his two restless daughters go to South Africa to reminisce about their mother, and on the trip they encounter the devious and vengeful Simba. Nonsensical decisions needlessly clash with terrific direction and amazing cinematography. Steven Price's score pulses brilliantly and the acting is pretty good too. The pleasantly grounded Sharlto Copley was a surprise. And the lion looks really good. (03/05/2024)

The suspense sets in early and effectively and the survival-drama potential is solid until the end. Good work with the setting and digital animals, with a likable acknowledgement of Jurassic Park’s inspiration (endangered characters trapped in a jeep). And Idris Elba fits in perfectly. The “broken family comes together in an extreme situation” ultra-cliché doesn’t matter; after all, this is a genre flick that solidly entertains with suspense in an exotic setting. But there are some occasional bits of nonsense. There aren’t many of them, but this high-powered and technically high-quality adventure would be better off without them. (29/09/2022)

Experienced Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur delivers a very successful and high quality genre film with a simple premise but all the more effective execution. It doesn't aim too high and it works well in pretty much everything it tries to do. If you enjoyed Aja's Crawl a few years ago, Beast might be something for you. And there aren't that many quality horror films about killer beasts. (10/08/2022)