Parents' Guide to Beast

There are only so many ways to tell stories about professional fighting, and this one can be forgiven for being somewhat generic—but not for its general lack of energy and passion. Co-written by Russell Crowe, who also gave himself the best part as Patton's crusty, grumpy former trainer, Beast is more of a soap opera than an exciting fight movie. It piles on the clichés, including a fishing trawler (Patton takes home a paltry $300 because they can't seem to catch anything), a little girl with asthma troubles who needs to see a specialist, a new baby on the way, a headstrong brother who wants to go back in the ring despite a head injury that could lead to his death, a training montage, and, of course (spoiler alert?), the victorious final fight.

Those elements can—and have—worked in other movies, but here the direction is so sluggish and the tone so overly serious that other parts of the story start to look silly. (The big, blaring music score doesn't help.) Crowe gets in some good bits with lines like "You have moments and memories; if you don't take the moment, you don't get the memory," but those are interspersed with too much that's mediocre. Beast isn't terrible, but it's a featherweight movie without much punch.