Well intended but pretty boring – especially since it's nearly three hours long – monster movie about a small fisherman community named Grace Point that has a bit of a sea creature problem. It starts with the disappearance of a young couple out on a sailing trip and then it takes an awful long time (again, this movie is freaking three hours long!) before anything remotely significant happens. Thanks to the discovery of one miserable little claw, however, highly respected fisherman Whip Dalton can derive they're up against a 60ft tall squid. With his knowledge, this guy should have been the assistant of Steve Irwin. Maybe then he would still be alive today! Anyways, because of the so-called "trap-fishing" that became quite popular in Grace Point, there's hardly any fish left near the coastal town and the octopus' natural source of food is as good as extinct. This leaves the creature no choice but to go after the inhabitants of Grace Point instead. Naturally, and in good old-fashioned "Jaws" tradition, the arrival of the squid coincides with the annual town's festival and there are obviously a lot of people that want to make tons of money on the account of the exceptionally large sea monster. Of course, you can't really blame writer Peter Benchley for ripping off "Jaws", as he himself was also the creator of "Jaws".
Since this is a three hour long movie (not sure if I emphasized that little detail already) there's also a whole lot of tedious, dreadful and irrelevant nonsense going on in this film. Multiple romantic sub plots, for example, involving the leading man's slow progress towards a first new relationship since the passing of his wife. Ironically enough, he eventually falls for a female coast guard member who isn't ready for a new lover in her life either. Whip Dalton's teenage daughter discovers the meaning of love for the first time in her life as well, and her story is actually hilarious if you're a cynical bastard who finds joy in the agony of others. Throughout the entire first half of the movie, this girl nags that she's stuck in a small fisherman town without cute boys, yet when she meets the oceanologist's young assistant and spends a few romantic days with him, he subsequently gets eaten by the squid. There, I just summarized altogether 60 minutes of running time for you.
The second half of the film is dragging and dull, with overlong and unnecessary sequences and a sub plot that is directly stolen from "Orca – the Killer Whale" (another "Jaws" imitation) suggesting that the octopus is killing with a grudge. For you see, a couple of over-anxious hunters claimed they eliminated the monster, whereas they only killed a baby species. In the second half of the film, mommy returns with a vengeance. The make-up effects and squid models are quite good, especially the baby-squid corpse that floats around on the water surface throughout the entire second part. Decent acting performances and good casting decisions as well, with Charles Martin Smith ("The Untouchables") as the obnoxious bureaucrat mayor and Larry Drake ("Darkman", "Dr. Giggles", "Dark Night of the Scarecrow") as the sleazy, drunken and loud-mouthed troublemaker in town. "The Beast" certainly isn't a bad film, but I just wished I watched the short and simple version instead.
Since this is a three hour long movie (not sure if I emphasized that little detail already) there's also a whole lot of tedious, dreadful and irrelevant nonsense going on in this film. Multiple romantic sub plots, for example, involving the leading man's slow progress towards a first new relationship since the passing of his wife. Ironically enough, he eventually falls for a female coast guard member who isn't ready for a new lover in her life either. Whip Dalton's teenage daughter discovers the meaning of love for the first time in her life as well, and her story is actually hilarious if you're a cynical bastard who finds joy in the agony of others. Throughout the entire first half of the movie, this girl nags that she's stuck in a small fisherman town without cute boys, yet when she meets the oceanologist's young assistant and spends a few romantic days with him, he subsequently gets eaten by the squid. There, I just summarized altogether 60 minutes of running time for you.
The second half of the film is dragging and dull, with overlong and unnecessary sequences and a sub plot that is directly stolen from "Orca – the Killer Whale" (another "Jaws" imitation) suggesting that the octopus is killing with a grudge. For you see, a couple of over-anxious hunters claimed they eliminated the monster, whereas they only killed a baby species. In the second half of the film, mommy returns with a vengeance. The make-up effects and squid models are quite good, especially the baby-squid corpse that floats around on the water surface throughout the entire second part. Decent acting performances and good casting decisions as well, with Charles Martin Smith ("The Untouchables") as the obnoxious bureaucrat mayor and Larry Drake ("Darkman", "Dr. Giggles", "Dark Night of the Scarecrow") as the sleazy, drunken and loud-mouthed troublemaker in town. "The Beast" certainly isn't a bad film, but I just wished I watched the short and simple version instead.