REVIEW: BEAST
THE GIST
If you like these kinds of movies, you will probably like this one
THE REVIEW
!!!SPOILERS!!!
EXPECTATIONS
Can’t say I was motivated to see this. Russell Crowe was my only draw card. I am not a sports guy let alone an MMA person.
It seemed like it was going to be similar to Warrior or The Fighter.
This has had a very limited cinema release, I could only find one place in Opunake playing it.
RATINGS SO FAR
It was released overseas on April 10th, but released in New Zealand June 4th. We are late….as usual. But the ratings will be fairly solid at this point, coming in at 6.7/10. Nothing to be sneezed at.
CONTEXT
The film is produced by Broken Open Pictures and is directed by Tyler Atkins; it was originally announced through the working title The Beast in Me. Russell Crowe co-wrote the script with David Frigerio, who will produce alongside Tim O'Hair and John Schwarz. Crowe also leads the cast with Daniel MacPherson. The cast also includes Luke Hemsworth, Mojean Aria, Kelly Gale, George Burgess, Bren Foster, Saphira Moran, and Australian musician Amy Shark, who makes her feature film debut
THE PLOT
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in ONE Championship against its brutal champion Xavier Grau.
THE EXPERIENCE
It was one of those fighting movies!
Although it hit familiar beats to other films, it still had it’s own flavour.
THE MEAT
The Story: It was a derivative story I have seen before. Retired fighter gets an opportunity to fight again for a large sum of money. He just so happens to need money to help family out etc. In this case, his younger brother was illegally knocked out and has $50,000 debt owing. Guy is offered $100,000 to fight an opponent he beat years ago. That opponent was his only loss of his career. Guy goes back and demands $150,000 to fight and gets it promised to him. He pays his brothers total debt, to some sort of mobster. He gets his old trainer back (Crowe) whom he has a contentious relationship with. It is not exactly like any past film but has bits and pieces with similarities to different films. In the second half there are some surprise turns but still somewhat predictable. I did enjoy the second half a lot better though. The stakes got higher. It got more intense. In the middle of the film the fight fell apart only for the brother to step up to fight and be killed. This left the final act of the film for the revenge fight in a winner takes all scenario. He avenges his brother despite being pushed to his limit and nearly losing, another familiar story trope.
Performances: There was a few bad acting performances throughout this but I am not gonna name names Apart from Luke Hemsworth’s American accent, it was bad. It slipped in and out of sounding natural to sounding so put on it was comical.They should have just let him have an Australian accent.Russell Crowe was heads above everyone else in terms of talent but there were a few other good performances. Daniel MacPherson, Mojean Aria and Kelly Gale.
Director/Tyler Atkins: For his second feature film it is quite impressive. The story flowed with great pacing. The shots were well placed. I can see he has a big future ahead.
Fighting Scenes: Choreography was well done and is also another testament to Tyler Atkins direction. The fight scenes played out nicely and always kept me interested.
Sound Effects: Some of the squelching sound effects when fighting were way over the top, that could have been toned back.
SUMMARY
Even though I am not into these kinds of films and it had a number of flaws, it still held my interest and surpassed my expectations at times.
That says a lot. Most likely, if you love these types of films and story, you will have a good time with this.
Finding somewhere that is playing it will be the biggest challenge.
