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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:13
Rotten:8
Average Rating:5.3/10
Australian Rating: M [See Full Rating]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Australian Theatrical Release:
Mar 12, 2009 Wide
US Box Office: $0
A rev head's delight, Eric Bana's two year odyssey to document his 25 year relationship with a motor vehicle is a sometimes entertaining, sometimes (unavoidably) indulgent work that is good hearted, sincere and partially illuminating
Top CriticLove The Beast has the mellow glow of affectionate nostalgia for the kind of solid construction and steadfast mateship increasingly hard to come by in these prefab times.
Top CriticDigs enthusiastically into the rarely seriously discussed issue of the bond that can exist between man and machine.
Top CriticIt is diverting for a few minutes, but the enterprise really needs something more interesting than one man's relationship with his car.
Top CriticMore than anything, Love the Beast testifies to Bana's need to be liked. As an onscreen presence he exerts visible control over every scene, while as a director he largely avoids tackling painful material head on.
Top CriticAn indulgent but moving account of a decades-long love affair with his first car.
Top CriticUnless you share Bana’s worship of screeching tyres and throbbing engines then this is probably something you only really need to see on the small screen.
Bana may not be a star exactly swaddled in charisma, but what mystique he did have is disassembled as comprehensively as that coupe's innards.
Top CriticSlight but unexpectedly sweet.
Although it helps to be a car nut to watch this, Bana's unpretentious passion is infectious.
Slight but engaging.
Top CriticPetrolheads can probably go ahead and add an extra star but otherwise Love the Beast is a likeable and occasionally moving documentary, even if it's not quite the success it could have been.
Bana's easygoing manner and a lingering sense of nostalgia build a mellow mood overall, while shrewd editing by Conor O'Neill and a rocking Aussie soundtrack pump up the volume on the race sequences.
Through narration, interviews, and cinematographic fawning over their chassis, classic American cars are celebrated for their imperfect character, which makes them seem vibrantly alive.
Although it's the shiny red 1974 Ford Falcon coupe that occupies the screen time, it's Eric Bana who engages in this very personal look at the boy from suburban Melbourne, Australia who might have been a racing car driver.
This self-directed vanity project shows the actor as a decent bloke who keeps in touch with his old mates from home, but that goodwill is squandered by earnest interviews with fellow petrolheads.
'non-car people' will find themselves forced into the position of disengaged anthropologist, observing all the vehicular bump and grind without gaining any real insight or emotional connection from the experience.
You would have to love Eric Bana and his souped-up old racer to appreciate this car-themed documentary.
An innocuous if not entirely successful attempt to convince “non-car people” about the joys of loving a 1974 Ford Falcon XB coupe.
Top CriticBana packs plenty of visual grunt for revhead auds, but his misty-eyed narration and awkwardly staged probing of man-car love with an Oz TV psychologist veer close to vanity-project potholes.
Top Critic
November 16, 2009:
Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
Not a lot of people know that actor Eric Bana, familiar to most from roles in the likes of Star Trek, Munich and Ang Lee's Hulk, is a massive petrol head. With the release of... More...
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