Directed by: Jeff Bleckner
Starring: William Petersen, Charles Martin Smith, Karen Sillas
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Timeless Media Group
Release Date: August 4, 2009
Running Time: 180 minutes
Our Score: 2 out 5 stars
Peter Benchley changed my life with “Jaws” and due to that his work will always hold a special place for me. “The Beast” was never my favorite adaption of his work but it is not terrible either. This release though by Timeless Media Group is a bit disappointing and doesn’t even equate to a proper Blu-ray release. I hate to keep putting this down but I feel like it is more of a DVD upscale than a Blu-ray.
“The Beast” stars William L. Petersen (“CSI”) as Whip Dalton in this battle of man against the darkest secrets of the ocean deep. When a large, strange claw is discovered in the small town of Graves Point, marine biologist Dr. Herbert Talley (Ronald Guttman), identifies it as belonging to a rare giant squid. The Dr. and Whip Dalton set out to hunt this beast. What is cool about this release is that it is the full uncut Special Extended Version. It features almost 80 minutes of restored footage from the original TV mini-series release.
The Blu-ray packaging is lame and badly photoshopped. The video resolution only includes an 720p transfer, with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. I will give this a little bit a leeway since it was made in the 90’s but the standard 4:3 release just eeks me on Blu-ray. The audio is only Dolby Digital 2.0 track, no bad overall but nothing special. To top this off, there are absolutely no special features. All you get is the movie and a scene selection menu.
