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Director: Tyler Atkins
Stars: Daniel MacPherson, Russell Crow
Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

“I built this gym for you.”

From Tyler Atkins, Daniel MacPherson and Russell Crowe are fighter and trainer respectively, providing two powerful performances in Beast – a damning, sweaty, and hard-hitting combat sports action-drama. Opening with an intense pre-fight routine, MacPherson is Patton James – an MMA legend – and Crowe’s Sammy is his old school, tough as nails, no bullsh*t trainer.

Several years later, Patton is in the fishing trade, working for a scumbag skipper, barely keeping a living. His younger brother, Malon (Mojean Aria), however, has followed the elder footsteps and stepped into the cage himself. Whilst Patton is counting the fish in the net, Malon faces off against the deadly Xavier Grau (Bren Foster), leading to carnage. Gabriel (Luke Hemsworth), the slimy and sleazy manager of Grau, is hellbent on establishing a revenge fight between Grau and Patton, many years after their original encounter. Reluctant to return to the cage, Patton shows little interest, and has kept a promise to his wife and child to never return to that way of life. Can Patton keep his promise?

For Beast to work as best as possible, it has to establish a sustainable balance of fighting spectacle and drama. Beast goes to great lengths to present and exploit the life and challenges of Patton outside of combat. With this spectacle in drama, we then become more aligned with the character and their entourage when Beast inevitably evolves into a fight spectacle, which is also quite exciting.

Present throughout, however, is a solid element of intrigue. The intrigue is directed as to why Patton stopped fighting and why there’s a 5+ year leap from the opening events of the film. With only minute detail provided, and no generic big reveal flashbacks, much of the off-screen events are up to the imagination. Whatever occurred was enough to send his trainer, Sammy, to turn his back on him for good.

In terms of legitimacy and realism, even to the untrained eye of combat sports, Beast does seem that it requires a pinch of salt now and again. At the age of Patton’s character, would he really manage to make an instance comeback and challenge for the world title, many years out of the ring? However, with so much excitement present throughout, any doubts over plausibility fail to exist, unless apparent in a quick debate after the film. The character performances of both Russell Crowe and Bren Foster, successfully reinforce the tropes of these films, and maintain viewer participation from start to finnish.

Ultimately, Beast is a very exciting film, be it as a drama or sports actioner. Far from as extravagant or ridiculous as yesteryear’s range of Kickboxer to Best of the Best, there is an element of those films present at the heart of Beast. Under the direction of Tyler Atkins, Daniel MacPherson is allowed to thrive in this role – convincing as both a committed family man, and also an elite level athlete, his star performance successfully aides and accommodates both avenues.