Beastly (2011)

READ the book! Much better! Don't waste your time on this garbage

Beastly (2011): Dir: Daniel Barnz / Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris, Lisa Gay Hamilton: Visually well made modern version of Beauty and the Beast that regards attitude and oversight. It stars Alex Pettyfer as a handsome popular student running for student President but his campaign is all about praise towards outward beauty while trash talking those whom he sees as ugly. A witch for whom he mocked repeatedly puts a curse on him and he is transformed into a hideous being. He is informed that he has one year to find true love or he will remain this way. Director Daniel Barnz is backed by fine locations, sets and makeup on the hero. Unfortunately the screenplay is too corny and leaves one to desire the effective Disney animation. Of the cast only Pettyfer seems to excel. His vanity and popularity is well established and his stress in his attempts at love are obvious but we all know the outcome and Vanessa Hudgens doesn't help matters. She plays this free spirited student who is sheltered away in the mansion when she and her father are mugged. She is never believable even when she truly loves him. Mary-Kate Olsen steps out of her Full House image to play the witch but the role is a joke. Finally there is Neil Patrick Harris as a blind teacher hired by Pettyfer's father but this role is standard and somewhat dull. Lisa Gay Hamilton has the cardboard role of the maid. Perhaps she should get started and dust off her resume. The idea of creating a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast is fine. The idea of releasing it as a bad circus act is not fine. Score: 4 ½ / 10

An empty, pretentious and rather deceitful 'love' story - all about style over substance while claiming to champion the opposite. My favourite character was the goth girl - at least she had attitude. The lead actor's performance was plastic, artificial, the plot was superficial and dishonest,An earlier review suggested that you might enjoy this film if you're a teenager. I wouldn't personally be quite so ready to insult the intelligence of the odd few teens with whom I'm personally acquainted. I usually try to avoid being so negative, but I found this film really rather annoying.

Well, "Beastly" is definitely a teenage sugar-coated love romance, and would be very well enjoyed if you are a teenager. Of which, I am not. So sitting through this movie was somewhat of a challenge.Why? Well, because it was so predictable, and because it was so sugar-coated that my teeth started to hurt just watching it.That being said, then it wasn't all together a bad movie, far from it. The movie did have its moments, but again, I must emphasize that you have to be a teenager to fully enjoy this movie for what it is.What made the movie semi-interesting for my parts was the take on how the world reacts to people who are not one of the "beautiful people" or one of the popular people. If you are different in any way, society and the majority of the herd-mentality-fed mass will shun you and treat you as an outcast, and the movie did portray this aspect of society in a good enough way. However, personally, I think the movie could have had a heap more moments where Kyle would be out in public with his disfigured face, instead of just being hidden away in that apartment.Furthermore, it was nice to see Neil Patrick Harris make an appearance in the movie, and his characters was adding a lot of interesting flavor to the movie. But more than so, to see Mary-Kate Olsen in the movie was just phenomenal, and especially in that particularly odd character she was playing. These two people actually made it worth to sit through the movie as a non-teenager.Story-wise, then "Beastly" is as plain and predictable as stories go. No surprises here, and you know the ending to the movie right from the very moment even before you put the disc into the DVD player. Everything in the story have been seen before in other stories and movies, so don't expect anything groundbreaking here. As for this being a modern take on the "Beauty and the Beast" story, well, that is debatable. I, personally, didn't see it as such, but more like a teenage spin-off of that particular classic story.Acting-wise, well I wouldn't exactly say that the performances put on in this movie was particularly memorable by any account. It is fairly straight out the generic acting line, without any outstanding star moments."Beastly" is in my opinion a mediocre movie. But I am sure that there is heap of teenage girls and women out there who would disagree with me on that verdict.