In 1996, NBC produced a mini-series based off of Peter Benchley's book "The Beast". I was in 1st grade at the time and like many other boys, was fascinated by dinosaurs, aliens, reptilians, and monsters. Needless to say, I fell in love with this show and years later, I still think it holds up rather well. For one thing, the Giant squid looks more realistic than any of the so called Syfy original movie monsters. You see, back in those days, filmmakers put effort into their monsters. Sadly, in many cases today, filmmakers have gotten lazy and have decided to do every last thing in CGI (which, don't get me wrong, looks great sometimes, but many times it does not). In addition, the production value over all is fantastic for a TV movie along with the actors. You have William Petersen before he became Gil Grissom on CSI (lets face it; he was a big cause for that show's success)playing the heroic fisherman,Larry Drake as a shady fisherman, Charles Martin Smith as the sleazy port master, and Karen Sillas as the tough but loving coast guard officer. Bottom line is they just don't make any mini-series anymore (except on HBO and others like it). So if you want to watch a very well done monster movie, I would highly recommend The Beast.PS: For those folks who were upset over the edited DVD version, a newly released two disc extended addition restores the movie to its former glory. I just ordered my copy from Amazon and they said the supplies were low. But fear not, they also said more were on the way.

Small fishing town Graves Point is besiged by a man eating Giant Squid in this made for TV movie based on the novel by Peter Benchley. This film often gets mixed reviews I find, because it bears several simalarities to Jaws. Well of course it does, its the same guy who wrote both novels. Apon watching this film, one must forget that its written by the same man who wrote Jaws, and treat this like a stand alone film. Do this and I almost guarantee youl love it. Whip Dalton(William Peterson) is a fisherman who is struggleing to survive because the local waters are trapped fished dead. When he and his mate Mike Newcombe(Sterling Macy Jr) discover a lift raft floating in the ocean he suspects foul play, he his made sure of this when a large claw falls from inside the raft. As more people disappear Whip sends the claw to be examined and it ends up in the hands of world renowned marine biologist Dr.Herbert Talley(Ronald Guttman) who knows straight away which animal the claw belongs to. He arrives in Graves Point to investigate. People continue to disappear and the remains of a mauled Sperm Whale wash up. The plot is pretty simple and although this film is almost 4 hours long, its never boring. The characters are played brilliantly and are convinsing. Schuyler Graves(Charles martin smith) is played so brilliantly that you genouinly end up hating him as he is the typical rich mayor who only cares about business. Another interesting character is wealthy owner of Sea Land Texas Osbourne Manning(Dennis Arndt) who just wants to have a Giant Squid at his resort. The female lead is dull and boring despite being attractive, shes a helicopter pilot played by Karen Silas and she and Whip end up together, typical. Personally I thought Dr.Talley was the best character in it, He was portrayed brilliantly and since I actually want to be a Marine Biologist I can relate to him a little. Since seeing this film Iv became a fan of Ronald Guttman for his performance in this. The Squid itself looks pretty good, Giant Squids are hard to create for films I'd imagine. Its a truly menacing beast of tremendious size and aggression. Im not keen on the ending though, I wont spoil it but its a little "Hollywood", I thought the ending in the Novel was better. Overall this among my favourite films and I give a 9/10.

This is not a Oscar winner by a long shot. It is pretty predictable. Good guys kill beast that is terrorizing a shoreline community. The hero is a widower named "Whip Dalton" played by William Petersen. Dalton has teenage daughter Dana, (Missy Crider). There is a love interest, Lt. Kathryn Marcus(Karen Silas) of The US Coast Guard. There is the usual bad guy Schuyler Graves(Charles Martin Smith) and his greedy cohorts, Dr. Herbert Talley(Ronald Guttman) and Osborne Manning(Denis Arndt). Crider gave a sincere portrayal of Dana and William Petersen was great as the ship's captain and was believable. One might even believe he belonged there.I think the saving grace of this movie is the chemistry between the actors. Petersen and Crider fit perfectly as father and daughter. Karen Silas portrayal of Lt. Marcus was flat made me grind my teeth as she spoke feminist rhetoric that a woman has to be twice as good as a man to get accepted, which may be true depending on who you talk to.The one thing I did notice was that the movie felt like it had no director and was left it's own devices.All in all this is a harmless movie that you can let your ten year old watch without supervision, though you might want to watch it as well.I did like this movie, but I'm still trying to decide if I want to buy it or not.

My Take: Enjoyable, made-for-TV monster movie.After watching "Jaws" and "The Beast", I could conclude that Peter Benchley should be proud when his novels translated well when filmed. I've heard many bad reviews about this movie, mainly because it was loosely based on Benchley's bestseller. But, hey, this is a movie. Not everything has to go by the book. Directors and screenwriters have to add a couple of twists from the novels. okay, a lot of twists, but this has been a case in many Hollywood movies, and some turn up to be very good, why can't this? The plot is quite like the plot for sci-fi monster movies, a hungry creature makes snacks out of unwary victims, and a good guy tries to stop it, while a money-hungry guy tries to capture it and put it on display. But still, that kind of plot is what makes this kind of films really good, and "The Beast" uses it effectively.The performances are fine. William L. Petersen (from "C.S.I." fame) is okay as a the hero Whip Dalton (the surname was Darling in the novel). Charles Martin Smith is fine as the profit-hungry town owner Schuyler Graves (the Liam St.John character from the novel). Creature effects were great and Don Davis' score is terrific.So I would still recommend it, although not as good as "Jaws" was, it is still a very effective B-style sci-fi sea-monster movie.TV movie rating: **** out of 5.