Beast: The simple pleasures of a man vs. beast movie have returned to the big screen with the appropriately titled Beast. Save for the titular creature being a lion and some outstanding cinematography from Phillippe Rousselot that uses a very active camera and frequent long takes to build suspense and capture the beautiful landscapes of the South African wilderness, Beast pretty strictly adheres to the genre playbook. Beast's familiarity doesn't ultimately matter much such since veteran director Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns, Everest) utilizes it so well. By making the melodramatic story filler as painless as possible by giving Idris Elba the space to inject as much emotional weight as possible into these soapy scenes about a man desperately trying to reconnect with his daughters (Iyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries) after the death of their mother/his ex-wife and never letting these scenes overpower the main attraction of seeing a pissed off lion trying to snack on some humans, Kormakur is able to make a tight, suspense-filled project that has the perfect amount of dramatic juice to fill 93 minutes of screentime. Beast is an efficient popcorn thrill ride that provides a different type of classical entertainment than a lot of other films that were released in the past few months, making it the ideal modest sendoff for a pretty terrific summer movie season.
Grade: B
Samaritan: There's a lot of untapped potential sitting inside the grounded superhero saga Samaritan that could've been worked into something really special if it were executed with more care. As it works its way through its primary story of a 13-year-old boy (Javon Walton aka Ashtray from Euphoria) who swears a superhero who's believed to have been missing for 25 years (Sylvester Stallone) has just moved into the apartment building across from where he lives, it takes some unexpected detours that grapple with the humanity behind the heroes and the people they've sworn to protect. There are moments where it touches on the gray areas of morality that make heroism and villainy concepts that have to be interpreted through the eyes of the beholder, how average citizens convince themselves that a hero will return and save the day in an attempt to provide them with some comfort to help them power through a challenging moment and the immense loneliness that exists within a person that's widely beloved and mythologized by the public, but has nobody in their lives that loves them for who they truly are.
However, an underdeveloped, unfocused script from Bragi F. Schut-who co-wrote the graphic novel the film is based on and uncharacteristically flat direction from Julius Avery ensure that these themes aren't explored with the depth or delicacy they needed to make a real impact. While the intrigue of these ideas along with the solid performances from Stallone, Walton and Pilou Asbaek as the primary antagonist keep things from completely falling apart, this is a disheartening missed opportunity to create something special in a genre that would greatly benefit from the presence of more subversive, unique films.
Grade: B-
Me Time: On this edition of "Netflix revives an old Hollywood staple", the streaming giant brought back the megastar R-rated buddy comedy with Me Time. Step back into the good old days of 2007 for this hijinkathon centered around a straightlaced family man (Hart) who reluctantly agrees to let loose for the first time in ages with his hard-partying bachelor best friend (Wahlberg) while his wife (Regina Hall) is on vacation with their kids. Property gets destroyed. People get physically, financially and emotionally hurt. Both men learn valuable lessons in the closing minutes and everybody ends up being just alright in the end.
Me Time is a stupid little movie full of predictable punchlines that manages to commit the ridiculous sin of casting Hall in a stoic supporting role that completely buries her comedic chops, but I'd be lying if I said that the majority of the bits didn't get some laughs out of me (particularly the break-in and monster truck scenes) and I wasn't engaged throughout. These types of movies have a certain carefree, effortless charm to them that I've always respected, and I miss the days where studios pumped out a handful of them every year. If that sweet sweet viewer watch data strikes the right notes with Netflix corporate, this old Hollywood staple could end up becoming a new fixture on the service.
Grade: B-
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