{"id":625028,"date":"2026-04-23T04:58:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:58:41","slug":"michael-jackson-biopic-michael-mma-action-film-beast-japanese-horror-exit-8-tree-change-tale-alphabet-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625028\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson biopic Michael; MMA action film Beast; Japanese horror Exit 8; Tree-change tale Alphabet Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

MA 15+ (97 minutes)<\/p>\n

In some screen fights the antagonists inflict so much physical damage on one another that they seem doomed to spend what little life they have left in a vegetative state. Yet they pop up in the next scene with nothing more telling than a Band-Aid under one eye.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel MacPherson in Beast.Stan<\/p>\n

Beast is not one of those films. During its production, its star Daniel MacPherson sustained the injuries to prove it. Set in Port Kembla on the NSW south coast, it\u2019s about the ferocious business of mixed martial arts. McPherson\u2019s Patton James does not step into a boxing ring. His workplace is an octagonal cage where the fighters augment their boxing skills with kicking, wrestling and grappling moves co-opted from judo, jiu-jitsu and the ever-growing global potpourri of competitive combat sports.<\/p>\n

And in the middle of it all is the gladiator himself \u2013 Russell Crowe, cast as Patton\u2019s trainer, looking rather older and heavier than he did 21 years ago in his own boxing movie, Cinderella Man. Directed by Ron Howard, it was a biopic about James J. Braddock, an Irish-American boxer who became a light heavyweight champion during the Great Depression. When his boxing career began he was struggling to earn a living as a dockworker, which gives him a lot in common with Patton. He\u2019s working on a fishing trawler where his meagre pay depends on the size of the catch, along with the volatile temper of his vindictive skipper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MA 15+ (97 minutes) In some screen fights the antagonists inflict so much physical damage on one another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":{"0":"post-625028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}