Sharks, grizzlies, giant snakes and rampaging apes have traditionally been the go-to choices for animal-kingdom antagonists in survival thrillers. Lions not ...

Beast takes pride in the cinematic pleasures of an animal attack

Baltasar Kormákur's latest delivers on its “Idris Elba vs. a lion” premise, with the actor nicely elevating the sleek survival thriller.

review of the thriller Beast

Big Idris takes on an even bigger lion. Read the Empire review.

It’s impossible to argue that ‘Beast’ doesn’t live up to its promise, because the only promise was another piece of recyclable pop-culture imagery

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Amy Nicholson, Andy Klein and Charles Solomon review this weekend’s new movie releases on streaming and on demand platfo...

Idris Elba plays a vacationing widower trying to protect his teenage girls from a rampaging lion in Baltasar Kormákur's diverting survival thriller.

Idris Elba is a talented actor, but sadly ‘The Lion King’ is the more thrilling movie about lions.

Themes of exploitation and environmental degradation make this something more than a cheesy late August monster movie.

Beast is, the blurb tells us, a ‘pulse-pounding thriller about a father and his daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on prov...

By the end of this savanna-set survival thriller I was practically asleep

Having the lead actor harp on the point that “lions don’t do this” would be risky, if the goal were to make this action-thriller literally believable.

While not reinventing the wheel in any sense, Beast is still a satisfying watch that has a welcome sense of life and intention behind it

The real star here is veteran cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who lets the tense action play out in long takes

It's not as ambitious as 'Nope,' but 'Beast' — which pits Idris Elba against a rogue lion — is more fun than brainier summer blockbusters.

Idris Elba is quite compelling fighting both a lion and his own private demons.