Netflix is the best streaming service for anyone in the mood for an adrenaline-pumping survival thriller this April. The streamer just welcomed a brand-new shark movie ("Thrash"), which has swum straight to the top of the streamer's charts, and is due to welcome another original movie — Baltasar Kormákur's cat-and-mouse thriller "Apex," starring Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton — later this month. And if you're looking to see another ordinary person fighting to survive a deadly situation, you're going to want to check out another trending watch, too.
On April 7, Netflix added "Beast," a tense, fun man vs. nature thriller starring Idris Elba ("Luther"). The film first hit theaters in the summer of 2022, and sees Elba taking center-stage as an American doctor who lands himself and his two daughters in hot water when a safari trip goes wrong, pitting him against a bloodthirsty lion that's out for revenge.
If you like lean, mean action thrillers, I think it should fit the bill, and clearly, other viewers are curious about it, too, as in the days since "Beast" landed on Netflix, it's climbed into the charts. At the time of this update (April 13), the film is currently sitting in third place in the Netflix top 10 movies chart, behind "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and "Thrash."
If you've spotted "Beast" in Netflix's charts and were weighing up whether you should stream it or not, here's a little more info about this wild creature feature and a round-up of what critics had to say about the film upon release.
What is 'Beast' about?
In Baltasar Kormákur's "Beast," recently widowed husband Dr. Nate Daniels (Idris Elba) takes his children on a long-planned trip to the South African game reserve where he first met his wife.
Reunited with the reserve manager (and his old pal) Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), Nate sees it as a trip to bond with his girls, but the vacation's soon turned on its head when the group finds themselves under attack by a fearsome predator. After surviving a poacher attack, a rogue lion now sees all humans as the enemy. And as they look set to become the lion's latest victims, Nate's forced to step up to try and make sure he and his daughters escape with their lives.
In addition to Elba and Copley, "Beast" also features Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries as Nate's two daughters, Meredith and Norah.
Should you stream 'Beast' on Netflix?
OK, I'm not about to argue that "Beast" is likely to become anyone's favorite film anytime soon. However, if you're after a pretty lean survival flick, then it should serve as a decently entertaining shot of adrenaline for your next movie night.
"Beast" is a fun creature feature that knows why you're really here — seeing Nate and co. tangling with a fearsome predator — and even if it unfolds in sufficiently predictable fashion, and I think the digitally-rendered deadly predator does vary in quality across its runtime, "Beast" delivers where it counts.
Simply put, this is a tense, lean, 90-minute thriller with a capable lead that sufficiently delivers on its trailer's promise of Idris Elba punching a lion in the face — and if that's enough to have you adding it to your watchlist this week, I'm pretty confident that you'll like what you see if you do decide to give "Beast" a go.
If you want a second opinion, "Beast" was received decently enough by viewers. Over on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, "Beast" currently holds a 68% critics' approval rating (from over 200 reviews), with a marginally higher 77% rating from fellow cinephiles.
Reviewing for THR, David Rooney wrote: "In the hands of accomplished experiential action director Baltasar Kormákur (Everest), the thriller barrels along seasoned with a visceral fear factor, but not without some ludicrous plotting and dialogue."
Empire's John Nugent said similar in his 3-star review, writing: "An old-fashioned, B-movie creature-feature with some CG gloss. "Beast" is as predictable as anything, but it's a fun, silly, well-made film about a man punching a big cat."
Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt gave it a C+ rating, summing the movie up as "a perfectly ludicrous red-meat thriller" but criticizing the "woodblock dialogue" and special effects.
All in all, though, if you're in the market for a no-frills animal thriller, then I'd definitely recommend checking out "Beast" now that it's available to stream on Netflix.
