bayardhiler
In 1996, NBC produced a mini-series based off of Peter Benchley's book "The Beast". I was in 1st grade at the time and like many other boys, was fascinated by dinosaurs, aliens, reptilians, and monsters. Needless to say, I fell in love with this show and years later, I still think it holds up rather well. For one thing, the Giant squid looks more realistic than any of the so called Syfy original movie monsters. You see, back in those days, filmmakers put effort into their monsters. Sadly, in many cases today, filmmakers have gotten lazy and have decided to do every last thing in CGI (which, don't get me wrong, looks great sometimes, but many times it does not). In addition, the production value over all is fantastic for a TV movie along with the actors. You have William Petersen before he became Gil Grissom on CSI (lets face it; he was a big cause for that show's success)playing the heroic fisherman,Larry Drake as a shady fisherman, Charles Martin Smith as the sleazy port master, and Karen Sillas as the tough but loving coast guard officer. Bottom line is they just don't make any mini-series anymore (except on HBO and others like it). So if you want to watch a very well done monster movie, I would highly recommend The Beast.PS: For those folks who were upset over the edited DVD version, a newly released two disc extended addition restores the movie to its former glory. I just ordered my copy from Amazon and they said the supplies were low. But fear not, they also said more were on the way.
bilborough64
This is not a Oscar winner by a long shot. It is pretty predictable. Good guys kill beast that is terrorizing a shoreline community. The hero is a widower named "Whip Dalton" played by William Petersen. Dalton has teenage daughter Dana, (Missy Crider). There is a love interest, Lt. Kathryn Marcus(Karen Silas) of The US Coast Guard. There is the usual bad guy Schuyler Graves(Charles Martin Smith) and his greedy cohorts, Dr. Herbert Talley(Ronald Guttman) and Osborne Manning(Denis Arndt). Crider gave a sincere portrayal of Dana and William Petersen was great as the ship's captain and was believable. One might even believe he belonged there.I think the saving grace of this movie is the chemistry between the actors. Petersen and Crider fit perfectly as father and daughter. Karen Silas portrayal of Lt. Marcus was flat made me grind my teeth as she spoke feminist rhetoric that a woman has to be twice as good as a man to get accepted, which may be true depending on who you talk to.The one thing I did notice was that the movie felt like it had no director and was left it's own devices.All in all this is a harmless movie that you can let your ten year old watch without supervision, though you might want to watch it as well.I did like this movie, but I'm still trying to decide if I want to buy it or not.
vip_ebriega
My Take: Enjoyable, made-for-TV monster movie.After watching "Jaws" and "The Beast", I could conclude that Peter Benchley should be proud when his novels translated well when filmed. I've heard many bad reviews about this movie, mainly because it was loosely based on Benchley's bestseller. But, hey, this is a movie. Not everything has to go by the book. Directors and screenwriters have to add a couple of twists from the novels. okay, a lot of twists, but this has been a case in many Hollywood movies, and some turn up to be very good, why can't this? The plot is quite like the plot for sci-fi monster movies, a hungry creature makes snacks out of unwary victims, and a good guy tries to stop it, while a money-hungry guy tries to capture it and put it on display. But still, that kind of plot is what makes this kind of films really good, and "The Beast" uses it effectively.The performances are fine. William L. Petersen (from "C.S.I." fame) is okay as a the hero Whip Dalton (the surname was Darling in the novel). Charles Martin Smith is fine as the profit-hungry town owner Schuyler Graves (the Liam St.John character from the novel). Creature effects were great and Don Davis' score is terrific.So I would still recommend it, although not as good as "Jaws" was, it is still a very effective B-style sci-fi sea-monster movie.TV movie rating: **** out of 5.
john22900
First of all let me get one thing out of the way right up front. I like the actor William Petersen and I like his understated style of acting. He is never over-the-top and chews the scenery. He is also a very likable actor which is one reason why the CSI show is so popular. In fact, I think Petersen is such a good actor I would've really liked him to tackle the part of the lead character in the forthcoming adaptation of Don Brown's book which is going to star Tom Hanks instead which I believe is a colossal blunder of casting in my personal opinion. Don't get me wrong, I love Tom Hanks and his movies but for that part I think he is all wrong. But who knows he may prove me wrong.Now getting back to THE BEAST. I mostly liked the film but besides the inevitable comparisons with Jaws, Tentacles and Orca, the fact remains the beast was not very believable and even worse not particularly scary. I don't know if posters remember an Ed Wood film from the 50's called BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. It starred Bela Lugosi as a mad scientist who lived in a laboratory on the suburbs of a small town. For recreation, he fed some of the local inhabitants to a giant squid or octopus he keeps in his basement. The climax involved Lugosi being hoisted on his own petard and it is still quite a sight seeing Lugosi flailing about in the arms of the octopus wrapping them around himself to make it appear the thing is crushing him to death. Laughable to say the least. While THE BEAST does not come close to that sort of ineptitude, the stock cliché characters and the unbelievability/incredulity of the beast is almost enough to sink what otherwise could have been a great movie. Not bad for a time waster but if you have Jaws watch it instead.
AD
