Movie reviews: 'Beast' is not an ambitious film, but it doesn't have to be

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Idris Elba in a scene from "Beast." (Lauren Mulligan/Universal Pictures via AP)

BEAST: 3 STARS

“Beast,” a new nature-gone-wild flick starring Idris Elba and a big, angry CGI lion, and now playing in theatres, is a throwback to man versus beast movies like “Jaws” and “Anaconda.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says wildlife biologist Martin Battles (Sharlto Copely). “Multiple attacks, without eating its prey. Lions don’t do that. At least no lion I’ve ever seen.”

Elba is Dr. Nate Samuels, a recently widowed father of two teenage daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries). In an attempt to reconnect with his kids, he arranges a holiday to a South African wildlife reserve, run by Battles, a childhood friend of his late wife.

Daniels met his wife in South Africa, and, although he was separated from her when she passed, he wants his daughters to connect to their mother’s homeland.

The trip is idyllic until they arrive at a village that has been devastated by a gruesome lion attack. Soon, they meet the culprit, a wrathful male lion who regards all humans as enemies after his pride was wiped out by poachers. The lion is now fighting back.

“It’s the law of the jungle,” says Battles. “It’s the only law that matters.”

Elba hasn’t had great luck with felines on screen (see “Cats”), and faster than you can say, “Old Deuteronomy,” Samuels and his family are engaged in a horrifying fight for their lives.

“It’s you against him,” says Battles. "And that is not a fight you are designed to win.”

As a thriller “Beast” is so predictable the subtitle could have been called, “Maul’s Well That Ends Well.” Nonetheless, Icelandic director Kormákur does stage a few, straightforward action scenes in long takes that will make your blood pressure rise. The fight sequences in and around the Jeep the main cast spends most of the film in are claustrophobic and primal, with a real sense of danger.

Screenwriter Ryan Engle attempts to weave some father-daughter dynamics into the story, but we’re not here for the dysfunctional family stuff. We’re paying top dollar to see Idris Elba punch a lion in the face (before you @ me, these are CGI creations, no animals were harmed in the making of this movie) and so he does in fine B movie style.

“The Ghost and the Darkness” this ain’t.

Between lion attacks, the silence is filled with a variety of dialogue that ranges from, “You stay right here,” to “We’ve got to get out of here.” Elba does bring some emotive qualities to this action character, while Copely lends the story some grit. As the sisters, Halley and Jeffries bring a mix of steeliness and empathy. There is more to them than being scream queens on the Savannah.

“Beast” is not an ambitious film, but it doesn’t have to be. It has Elba and enough angry animal action to make its 90 minutes fly by in the swipe of a lion’s paw.

ORPHAN: FIRST KILL: 3 STARS

Thirteen years after creepy kid Esther was revealed to be a grown woman in the original thriller “Orphan,” she’s back in a prequel that sets up the events of the first film. Isabelle Fuhrman returns to play the crazed-killer orphan of the title, a 30-something woman afflicted with a hormone disorder that stunted her physical growth. “She never grew older,” says her doctor. “At least on the outside.”

The action in “Orphan: First Kill,” begins at the Saarne Institute, an Estonian psychiatric hospital home to a dangerous killer named Leena (Fuhrman). “Leena may look like a child, but she is a grown woman.”

One murderous rampage later, she escapes, and, after some quick online research, finds a missing kid she resembles. Using the name Esther, she makes her way to Connecticut, and poses as the long-lost daughter of Allen (Rossif Sutherland) and Tricia Albright's (Julia Stiles). She rocks a Wednesday Addams kind of look, wearing old-fashioned ribbons in her hair to disguise the scars from the electric shock treatment at the hospital, and says she picked up her heavy accent after being kidnapped and taken to Russia.

Greeted warmly by Allen and Tricia, son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) isn’t as overjoyed. “She has an accent now and dresses like Lizzie Borden,” he says when asked what Esther is like since her return.

So far, the movie echoes the original film, but then comes a twist that gives new meaning to the old saying about cleaning up after the kids.

“Orphan: First Kill” maintains the mix of camp and gore that made the first movie memorable. The 30-year-old killer in the body of a child is an absurd premise, but it’s handled with the right amount of dark humour, style and bloody kills, making it campy, good fun. Much of this has to do with the twist—which I can’t tell you about—but it also helps that Fuhrman, who last played this character when she was a pre-teen, is able to sell the idea of Esther as a child-woman.

Director William Brent Bell uses a number of tricks, like forced perspective and child actor doubles, to establish the illusion that Esther is a teenager and create a sense of continuity with the first film. Thirteen years is a long layover between movies, but the two films fit together snugly.

“Orphan: First Kill” may be the prequel nobody was waiting for, but after a slow start in the movie’s first half, it picks up and freshens up the story with a ghoulishly fun twist and some good creepy kid action.

SHARP STICK: 2 ½ STARS

Frank and provocative, “Sharp Stick,” the new film written and directed by “Girls” creator and star Lena Dunham, returns to familiar ground with a sexual coming-of-age story.

Kristine Froseth stars as 26-year-old Sarah Jo. A sexually inexperienced woman who had a hysterectomy at age 17, she still lives at home with her mom (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and wannabe Instagram influencer sister (Taylour Paige). She scrapes by babysitting for Zach, son of Josh (Jon Bernthal) and Heather (Dunham). Heather is pregnant and Josh has a wandering eye, which happens to land on the flirty Sarah Jo.

Their ”affair” culminates with a tryst on the floor of a cramped laundry room, setting Sarah Jo off on a journey of sexual discovery involving lots of pornography, a fixation on adult film star Vance Leroy (the ornately tattooed Scott Speedman) and carefully organized, random “educational” hook-ups.

“Sharp Stick” reverberates with echoes of the frankness of “Girls” and the edgy work of filmmakers like Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, but never rises to the level of any of those namechecks.

Dunham has woven some interesting characters to surround Sarah Jo, like her mother Marilyn, played by Leigh, a much-divorced Hollywood hanger-on, and twerking sister Treina, but she hasn’t given her main character any real depth. She is thirsty for carnal knowledge, and approaches it like a job, with a check list to boot, but aside from the humour inherent in that, Sarah Jo’s arc simply isn’t that interesting. Her desperation to prove to herself and others is repetitive, her actions so naïve they suggest her emotional age is far less than her stated age of 26. Given her mother’s openness regarding sex, it doesn’t ring true that Sarah Jo is completely unfamiliar with anything to do with sexuality.

“Sharp Stick” does have a few funny scenes, an interesting character or three, and an uncomfortable yet refreshing candidness about sex but, by the time the end credits roll, Sarah Jo’s journey is the film’s least interesting element.

DAY SHIFT: 3 STARS

“Day Shift,” a new action comedy starring Jamie Foxx and now streaming on Netflix, brings a supernatural twist to the familiar story of a father doing what he has to do to hang on to his family.

Foxx plays Bud, a San Fernando Valley pool cleaner and undercover vampire slayer. A fearless hunter of the undead while on the job, at home he’s a devoted father, but things aren’t going well. He and his wife Joceyln (Meagan Good) have separated, and unless Bud can come up with $5,000 to pay for private school tuition for daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax), mother and daughter are going to move to Florida.

Neither the pool cleaning or freelance vampire killing pay what they used to, and when a local pawnbroker (Peter Stormare) offers him a fraction of what his trophy vampire fangs are worth, he is left with only one option, join the vampire-hunter’s union.

Trouble is, they don’t want him. “You expect me to let you back in where the sun don’t shine?” asks union leader Ralph Seeger (Eric Lange). He’s a rebel, he doesn’t follow the rules, he’s a wild card, but when legendary vamp killer Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg) vouches for him, Bud gets in. However, the union has him on probation and his every move will be monitored by straight-laced union rep Seth (Dave Franco).

“I have to be with you at all times in the field,” Seth says. “Union rules.”

Bud can now earn the money he needs to keep his family together, unless elder vampire Audrey San Fernando (Karla Souza) gets her bloody revenge on him for killing her undead daughter.

“Day Shift” is an action comedy with an emphasis on bloody action. Between the decapitations, martial arts fight sequences, wooden stakings and Snoop’s Big Bertha rapid fire machine gun, this one has a much higher body count than your usual laugh fest. Foxx does his best to bleed the laughs out of the script. He’s a convincing action star, a kind of jokey Blade, who also has a way with a one-liner. His presence adds some much-needed lightness and his chemistry with Franco makes the character of Seth a tad less irksome.

“Day Shift” suffers from an underwritten script and overwrought plot turns, but despite all that, the action, Foxx and Snoop makes for a pretty good Saturday-matinee-style horror comedy, à la “Monster Squad” or “Fright Night.”

CARMEN: 3 STARS

Set in a quaint village in Malta in the 1980s, “Carmen,” a new film starring Natascha McElhone as a middle-aged woman who finds a new path in life through romance, is part coming-of-age, part travelogue.

McElhone is Carmen, a 50-year-old woman, loosely based on director Valarie Buhagiar’s own aunt Rita. In her village in Malta, tradition has it that when a man enters the priesthood, his sister comes along as caretaker of the church. Beginning at age 16, Carmen lives a life of service, 34 years of toil, until her brother unexpectedly drops dead.

Free of her obligation to the church, Carmen embraces life. She gets her hair done for the first time, offers very practical and playful advice to the villagers through the confessional, and finds romance with Paulo (Steven Love), a younger man who runs a pawnshop.

As Carmen discovers new ways to move forward with joy, we learn about the path that brought her to this stage of her life.

“Carmen” is an empathetic and optimistic movie about a second chance at living life to the fullest. McElhone brings a spirit of generosity and warmth to the character’s journey. Carmen’s life is blossoming, but her awakening isn’t easy and McElhone acknowledges her character’s struggle. Everything is new, and while Carmen is on the brink of becoming overwhelmed, this skillful performance also shows us how eager she is to embrace life’s opportunities.

The simple story is enhanced by the lead performance, and cinematographer Diego Guijarro’s gorgeous photography. This small Mediterranean island nation appears locked in time, a modern town rooted in the past, surrounded by travel brochure-ready scenery. It’s pure eye candy and serves as a perfect backdrop to this story of tradition and rebirth.

“Carmen” aims to make you feel better on the way out of the theatre than you did on the way in. It’s an admirable goal, and even if the movie doesn’t reinvent the feel-good-movie wheel, it accomplishes what it sets out to do.