Animals… a rather odd title for a film about Ben Affleck‘s Mark Kimball, who’s finding it’s rather expensive to run for mayor in his city, but a situation develops where he’ll need even more, because his son is kidnapped, and like Mel Gibson in Ransom, he’s all “GIVEMEBACKMYSON!”
The kidnapper wants £7m, but it’s midnight, the banks are shut, and Mark’s spent all his cash on the mayoral campaign.
Conveniently, however, his campaign manager, Sam (Steven Yeun – also recently in The Rip, alongside Affleck), knows a man who can.. or rater, woman, in the form of Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson – Teenage Sex And Death In Camp Miasma), who rather hams it up about how she has the cash, and acts like Winston Wolf in directing Mark and wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington – Imperfect Women), on how to behave with the baddie.
For the most part, when it takes place in the house of Kimball, Animals feels like watching a stage play, but while I’ll obviously avoid spoilers, once Gillian’s done her ‘smarmy’ bit, the film goes back to being rather mediocre.
An additional part about the couple having marital issues is thrown in, but that’s not at all interesting in the grand scheme of things, and just eeks out the overlong – for the content – running length. Affleck did far better with directing 2012’s Argo, but this kidnapper tale is more the thief of my time.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
Animals is on Netflix from today, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 106 minutes
Release date: October 9th 2026
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Score: 4/10
Director: Ben Affleck
Producers: Ben Affleck, Luciana Damon, Brad Weston,
Writers: Connor O McIntyre, Billy Ray, Ben Affleck, Dani Bernfeld, Collin Creighton, Matt Damon
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Mark Kimball: Ben Affleck
Abigail Kimball: Kerry Washington
Dayle Burton: Gillian Anderson
Sam Allison: Steven Yeun
Cecilia Trujillo: Adriana Paz
Ramon: Luis Gerardo Méndez
Denny Kimball: Christopher Woodley
Hector: Jacob Estrada
Ron Sperling: Ray Fisher
Hannah: Taylor Cooper
Rand: Chris Gann
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.