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Peter Benchley's The Beast

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Tomatometer 3 Reviews 43% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings

Critics Reviews

View All (3) Critics Reviews
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Aug 12, 2005 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...it's hard not to become wrapped up in this relatively simple story. Rated: 3/4 Aug 1, 2003 Full Review Scott Weinberg eFilmCritic.com A whole lotta boring and very little beast. Rated: 2/5 Jul 25, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (23) audience reviews
Audience Member Peter Benchley swaps flake for calamari in this watchable TV mini-series event. The Beast is a flat-packed psychopathic animal thriller even idiots can assemble; unexplained events leave an ethnically homogenous coastal town in terror, loathsome officials are in denial, all the dumbest people get it in the first act, and the humble hero does his life's work in one evening. This may sound drab, but much like cheap Scandinavian furniture made from sawdust it is also aesthetically pleasing and functional. William Petersen is charming and believable as a sullen fisherman but mama squid steals the show. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member This is one example of how Hollywood can get an animal wrong. My favorite animals get a bad reputation from films like this. Giant squids were not seen alive by humans until 2004 and they as adults stay in the deep sea naturally. But I do admit that ther eis worse such as Jaws and what it causedf to happen to Great Whites for example. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member While this movie is decent, it is one of the poorest adaptations of a novel that I can think of. Benchley's novel is an extremely well written (if not a tad unoriginal) and slowly building story that echo's back to his masterpiece, 'Jaws'. This is a made for TV movie, so its hard to expect too much. The script, acting, effects, and overall direction are not particularly overwhelming. Taking these limitations into account however, we still get a decently made and entertaining movie. Alot of cheap plot devices (the baby squid fiasco, the Petersen/Sillas romantic tension, over exaggerated climax, etc) all stray far from the source material and don't add much to the final product. Still beats the snot out of pretty much any Sci-Fi original and 90% of other made for TV films. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member While this movie is decent, it is one of the poorest adaptations of a novel that I can think of. Benchley's novel is an extremely well written (if not a tad unoriginal) and slowly building story that echo's back to his masterpiece, 'Jaws'. This is a made for TV movie, so its hard to expect too much. The script, acting, effects, and overall direction are not particularly overwhelming. Taking these limitations into account however, we still get a decently made and entertaining movie. Alot of cheap plot devices (the baby squid fiasco, the Petersen/Sillas romantic tension, over exaggerated climax, etc) all stray far from the source material and don't add much to the final product. Still beats the snot out of pretty much any Sci-Fi original and 90% of other made for TV films. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member A giant squid... so lame. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member While this movie is decent, it is one of the poorest adaptations of a novel that I can think of. Benchley's novel is an extremely well written (if not a tad unoriginal) and slowly building story that echo's back to his masterpeice, 'Jaws'. This is a made for TV movie, so its hard to expect too much. The script, acting, effects, and overall direction are not particularly overwhelming. Taking these limitations into account however, we still get a decently made and entertaining movie. Alot of cheap plot devices (the baby squid fiasco, the Petersen/Sillas romantic tention, over exagerated climax, etc) all stray far from the source material and don't add much to the final product. Still beats the snot out of pretty much any Sci-fi original and 90% of other made for TV films. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Peter Benchley's The Beast

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Director
Jeff Bleckner