Idris Elba is a big enough star to make a lackluster action movie trend on Netflix. He’s evidently not massive enough to get his Beast movie anywhere near box office success. His face on the poster was the only notable draw. Stars love movies about fighting big animals. Chris Hemsworth fought a whale in In the Heart of the Sea. Liam Neeson fought wolves in The Grey. It’s a fun trend, but it doesn’t always work out. Elba’s Beast flopped hard, but it’s currently Netflix’s tenth most-watched film, prompting some interest.
Idris Elba Brings Beast to Netflix’s Top Ten
Idris Elba is Dr. Nate Samuels, a grieving widower seeking a way to reconnect with his daughters. His old friend, Sharlto Copley’s Martin Battles, takes them on a safari in South Africa for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. They quickly discover a rogue lion on the loose. The massive predator drags Battles away while one of the young ladies crashes their car. Stranded, the film quickly devolves into an under-equipped lion-hunting expedition. It’s a classic man-versus-nature tale. Despite the marketing, this isn’t another comical wish-fulfillment fantasy about an unstoppable man taming the wild. It is, however, still pretty dumb. Critics slapped Beast with a 68% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most critics called it an enjoyable, disposable piece of classic shlock. Audiences were no kinder to it. Beast earned only $59.1 million on its $30 million budget. That labels it a flop, but its current Netflix performance is a surprise.
But where does Beast rank among other lion movies? Idris Elba’s Netflix hit is far from the only feature about humans engaging big cats in combat. Its closest competitor is The Ghost and the Darkness, a heady adventure based on a true story. It fared similarly to Beast, with poor box office profits and a mixed critical reception. It’s more interesting on some level, but the fictionalized tale of the twin Tsavo man-eaters dips into weird supernatural subjects. Darrell Roodt’s Prey also takes after the Tsavo man-eaters, but it turns the story into an awful lion-based Cujo. Beast‘s most recent comparison is Rogue, which would be a stellar action comedy if anyone involved knew what movie they were making. Megan Fox leads a team of generic army dudes as they fight terrorists, while a lioness with no allegiance picks people off randomly. Beast is shockingly high on the list.
If you’re looking for a decent, if generic, safari survival movie, Beast will fill the 90 minutes well enough. If you just like Idris Elba, Netflix has better options, but Beast isn’t the worst. The film is not available on Netflix in the United States. Oddly enough, if you type “Beast” into the streamer’s search bar, you’ll find Beasts of No Nation. Cary Joji Fukunaga’s masterful drama features Idris Elba’s best performance to date, but if you don’t have the spoons for that very serious film, Beast is fine, too.
