There is an almost elegant, simplistic beauty in the existence of the new film "Beast," which is about as close to peak late-summer-movie as you're going to find in the year 2022. Here is something that gives you exactly what you would expect when you hear that it is a movie in which Idris Elba fights a lion with his bare hands. If that premise sounds inherently ridiculous, that's because it is inherently ridiculous. No matter the context for why Elba fights a lion or what the outcome is, you can only take a movie so seriously when its climactic moments feature such a cartoonish battle. "Beast," to its credit, does not have grander aims in mind, with its mild ambitions as straightforward as possible. "Beast" is not a great film, but it is exactly as silly as the logline implies, or as much as you might hope.

Elba plays Dr.