Beast of Burden

While I do think it's commendable that Daniel Radcliffe still headlines whatever movie he makes, sometimes those movies aren't very good. It's not too late, though; he still has the world on a string and can start making less upsetting movies anytime. I didn't get through Escape from Pretoria or Imperium, but I did watch his practically one-man shows Beast of Burden and Jungle. His performances in both are extremely strong, but if you have to pick only one to watch, pick the latter.

Beast of Burden is writer Adam Hoelzel's first feature screenplay, and it shows. The story is unoriginal: a man agrees to smuggle drugs across the border to pay for a life-saving treatment for his wife (played by Grace Gummer). The vast majority of this low-budget flick is filmed in Daniel's helicopter as he deals with three different incessant phone calls during his flight. The vast majority of the dialogue feels ad-lib, as Daniel expresses his frustration. I give the lead actor a lot of credit; he really does the very best he can with the material he's given. Sometimes Jesper Ganslandt's uninspired direction lets the camera run on for too long, leaving Daniel to keep ad-libbing in the general tone of the scene.

If you like these plots (and many films feature a similar premise), you can check this movie out. If it were someone's graduate thesis film, it would be great; but as a Hollywood picture starring an A-list actor, it won't make the top of anyone's list.

Its less than 85 minutes long and was still a pretty dull ride. As stated in the premise its around 70 minutes of just daniel ratcliff in a cessna talking into a phone and trying to emote to the audience whats happening. All Is Lost did roughly the same thing but where that was amazing this struggled to get to the finish line. It was ok, just watchable. I think it ,weirdly, was too talkie and most of that was the same theme repeatable over and over. Nothing is really explored, neither his relationship to the other characters nor the environmental danger hes in.

Additionally I dont know anything about flying but there were multiple laws of physics and rules of aviation that were broken and really obvious where in even a layman would go "uumm I dont think thats how that works". It kinda ruined the immersion.

Didnt hate it but I cant think of a reason to recommend it.

This movie caught my eye plainly because I am always curious to see what Daniel Radcliffe is up to and what roles he is choosing to do. This movie, in my opinion, is beneath him. Actually, I think this movie is beneath any actor wanting to expand their art of acting.

Don't waste your time on this movie. The plot is lame and the acting is not believable whatsoever.

I rated this movie a 3 simply because I finished it. Of course, I was doing another activity at the same time. If you choose to do that, just look up occasionally, you will still know what is going on simply by listening to it.

Sometimes, great actors end up in pointless movies. I'm a faithful fan of Daniel Radcliffe, which is why I watched this movie. Whoever convinced him to do this movie is a desperate con artist. It barely makes any sense, and most of the setting is obscure and boring. The directing was awful, and the ending was just a bunch of concepts thrown together. Don't bother with this title, Daniel has plenty of better material for your viewing pleasure.

Earlier this year I watched Wheelman that got not too bad ratings on here and I still wonder why. That movie was about a guy in a car phoning different people every five seconds, and this for the entire movie. Apparently I didn't get it because I thought it was one of the most boring movies I saw this year. If you don't like cars but you do like planes, and you do like movies where people are just phoning during the entire movie then you should watch Beast Of Burden. Because that's basically it, Daniel Radcliffe in a plane phoning different people for the entire movie. 95% of the movie is just a guy in a plane phoning. You have to be a masochist to like that kind of garbage. The only reason I started watching this movie was because of Daniel Radcliffe. I wonder if he regrets accepting this role, because that's obviously a serious downer in his career. If you want to die from boredom watch Wheelman and Beast Of Burden consecutively.