The Beast

The role gives Jackson a lot to chew on, and to his credit, as always, he modulates between big and not-so-big with exemplary canniness. Not that you’d necessarily notice with all the bullets and short-range rockets flying. Rarely has an onscreen president been quite so aggressive.

The Beast is a fun ride that draws inspiration from old-school, high-concept action movies.

Harlin applies his well-honed skills to the action scenes, meaning essentially the entire film, but there’s only so much he can do to compensate for its talkiness — Jackson’s POTUS, as you can imagine, tends to be a chatterbox — and the proceedings’ ultimate resemblance to a video game.

It is little more than a gory, clichéd cartoon. While the notion of Jackson and Harlin teaming up again may stir some excitement in the hearts of old-school genre fans, even they will struggle to muster enthusiasm.