Beast Throws Punches but Ducks the Drama

Beast

★ ★ ½

Beast is about a disgraced MMA fighter named Patton James (Daniel MacPherson) on the verge of a middleweight title. As the film opens, he knocks out an opponent in six seconds, then we flash forward 10 years to find him working as a fisherman. In that time, he served prison time for a bar fight, got married and had a daughter.

We see none of this and miss a great deal of dramatic setup that could have paid dividends as the film ratchets up the tension. As it is, we get a paint-by-numbers sports drama that’s still somewhat effective, despite its predictability.

Daniel MacPherson as Patton James and Bren Foster as Xavier Grau
© 2026 Grindstone Entertainment Group

It follows the usual formula. A fighter falls from grace in his prime. He finds someone to settle down with. Then the chains of life pull him back to the ring—or cage, as it were. His wife doesn’t want him to fight because he made her a promise he wouldn’t fight again. A family member or friend gets into trouble, and the only way to help is to duke it out – promises to the missus be damned. You get the gist.

The film follows this formula to the letter, failing to show us anything new or compelling. The characters are two-dimensional, and despite the potential for dramatic content, the film never goes deeper than scratching the surface.

Daniel MacPherson as Patton James
© 2026 Grindstone Entertainment Group

The guy Patton knocked out in six seconds (we see everything leading up to the fight but not the fight itself) is Xavier Grau (Bren Foster). He fights Patton’s brother Malon (Mojean Aria) and leaves him in a coma. While visiting his brother in the hospital, Patton is propositioned by Xavier’s manager Gabriel (Luke Hemsworth) to come out of retirement. Patton’s the only fighter to have beaten Xavier, so he wants to beat Patton to remove that blemish. Patton spends most of the film trying to get his old trainer Sammy (Russell Crowe) to forgive him and train him again.

Russell Crowe as Sammy
© 2026 Grindstone Entertainment Group

This is another example of the script telling us things instead of showing us. Patton and Sammy talk about why they’re no longer on speaking terms. This is something we should have experienced for ourselves. It would have deepened our connection to the characters.

It’s okay for a film to be a bit formulaic. Sometimes that familiarity grounds us enough within a cinematic world to allow filmmakers to go deeper with character exploration. It’s where a movie can give itself a bit of originality. At times, Beast feels like it wants depth and introspection but never quite gets there, settling for a whole lot of ‘been there, done that.’

The drama is buried deep within the script, and it feels like the writers were more intent on getting the plot from one point to another. This is a little surprising since Crowe is one of the writers. Here, he leaves his Gladiator glory days back in the Roman Colosseum.

Amy Shark as Rose
© 2026 Grindstone Entertainment Group

One big missed opportunity is a dynamic we don’t see much in men’s MMA. A female trainer. Sammy’s daughter Rose (Amy Shark) has taken over his gym and trains fighters herself. She offers to train Patton when Sammy refuses. It’s his only option, so he agrees. This dynamic could have been compelling, and the contrast between an aging fighter and a female trainer could have created one strong scene after another. I wish they had explored this more.

It’s the acting that saves this film. All the actors do their best with the material given. Crowe is believable as the curmudgeonly old trainer. MacPherson is compelling as the film’s protagonist—we believe he cares for his brother, and we believe he meant it when he promised his wife ‘no more fighting.’

The fight choreography is well executed too. If only the drama matched the energy in the cage.

A film that did this better was 2011’s Warrior. Great fight scenes, matched with fantastic character drama. Two brothers vying for the same tournament, both with their own set of obstacles and their own good reasons to be at odds with each other. Here’s the thing—Warrior was so well written that we could have focused on one brother and it still would have been great.

Beast should have been a contender. It had the heart, but kept it buried deep in Rocky Balboa’s basement, never to step out from the shadows of the greats before it. As it is, it lands more like an unsatisfying technical knockout. A paper champion. All script, no flesh.