Beast: I won't lionise Idris Elba but he's pretty nifty as Nate who fights a rogue lion. There is some family filler as well, he's a widower with two troubled teen daughters, the three of them visit a animal reserve in South Africa near where Nate's wife grew up. The lion goes rogue because poachers killed the rest of his pride. He displays the odd behaviour that has been recorded in only a few cases - attacking humans without provocation, killing them and not eating them afterwards. Some great scenes of fighting off a lion who tries to get into a crashed land rover, this is Jaws on land, existential terror as the lion tries to bite you through the windows. The lion takes his prey silently when he chooses but will get loudly in your face as well. The chase/battle continues outdoors and in the confines of a ruined church. Maybe the real beasts are the poachers though. I felt like cheering as the lion chomped on them. Not a classic but there are some good jump scares and the drama is maintained rising to tension at appropriate points. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur from a screenplay by Ryan Engle. 7/10.
