Beastly (2011)

Instant Favorite.

Fantastic!

Better Late Then Never

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Maybe this is worth 5 stars out of 10, but just something about it makes me leave my rating at 4 stars.The main reason to watch this movie is to gaze at the beauty of Vanessa Hudgens. I guess teen girls will enjoy looking at the male star.This isn't really all that bad of a movie - but it's just so simplistic and obvious and it's been done many times before - and better.I really do feel this is geared towards 12 to 15 year old kids - and not particularly smart ones. Not that that's a bad thing.But many of the rest of us will be naggingly unsatisfied by this pablum.

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

Beastly happened to be on TV last night on Film 4 and I have never seen it before only clips of it online and I decided to check it out. The film is based on a Alex Finn novel and based on the fairytale Beauty & The Beast and tells the story about a arrogant narcissistic teenager named Kyle(played by I Am Number 4's Alex Pettyfer) who is so obsessed with toning himself all he cares about is himself and no one else as he attends Buckeston Academy High School. But all that is about to change for him when he calls Mary Kate Olsen's charcther(who happens to be a witch)ugly at a nightclub and so she gets her own back at him by transforming him into a hideous person. In order for him to return to his actual self he must find someone to love him for him(again like in the Beauty & The Beast tale where its the personality you go for NOT the way you look on the outside). Enter Lindy(played by Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical fame) who has a thing for Kyle as she met him at the nightclub before he got hideous and when she meets him again as he saves her from her father who killed someone(don't ask)and goes by Hunter now(Kyle does),he must try and protect her and also make Lindy fall in love with him. But will she love him in return?Bottom line this was a very contrived movie. The chemistry was not that great as the two main charcthers don't fall in love until the last half hour of the film,and also the film tries to be Twilight in a way(minus vampires).Basically everything about this movie was alright,nothing spectacular and I was glad to see it once. Overall its a 2.2/5 and a 4/10Also if you a fan of Pixie Lott she has some tracks on this movie including All The Boys and Broken Arrow.

I remember when I first watched this movie. It was two years ago -- I was over at my cousin's house past midnight, since that's where my friends would all gather to hang out often. Said cousin wasn't home, and Friend A was passed out on the couch in another room. So I was in my cousin's room with Friend B, bored, and we decided to look and see what movies were uploaded to the PlayStation 3.Lo' and behold, we came across "Beastly", and said friend told me that he'd seen it several years back and that it was garbage. We have a twisted world-view and thus we have ridiculous senses of humor, so we decided -- at 2 A.M. in the friggin' morning -- to watch this thing called a "film".It didn't take long to realize what type of movie this was. Y'know, the type that the director and writers very obviously intend to be one of those abhorrent disposable "chick flicks", a.k.a. films you go out to watch with your significant other because it's "like, ohmahgawd, so romantic!!" And I knew I was gonna be in for a very terrible experience, and I was not let down at all. So everyone involved in the creation of this movie can pat themselves on the back, because they succeeded two years ago from today in making two innocent men wish they had firearms available for the sole purpose of removing the memories of having watched said film the only way they know how -- forcefully, WITH BULLETS.I won't bother going in-depth with the characters and plot, because if you've seen any of the other 24948912829110389 films of this type, you already know them. In fact, if you even just read the plot summary, you know what happens in the movie.NONE of the characters are likable, except one, and that is a blind man played by none other than Neil Patrick Harris, which is literally the only redeeming quality of this film. Without any hint of hyperbole, he is the only reason this film got higher than a "1/10" from me. You will wish so desperately to beat the snot out of all the characters, because of the mind-numbingly stupid things they do and say.This film is so stupid, I actually think it may have been a sort of satire, taking all the tropes of these types of films and turning them on their heads, except that -- like I already said -- this film is too stupid for that, so I think that's giving the creators too much credit.Not to mention that the premise of the film itself is ridiculously boring and anemic as well. "Watch closely as this unlikable rich stereotypically-handsome jock douchebag transforms into an UGLY unlikable rich stereotypically-handsome douchebag (yes, this dichotomy was intentional), because he is a dick, and wants this girl!" That's literally the whole movie. Just some douchebag who gets cursed for being a douchebag, a very drab and boring one at that, and he has to "redeem himself" by...doing random good deeds, magical good deeds. While simultaneously chasing after a girl who is not as attractive as the film tries to get you to believe, and on top of that, is REALLY annoying as well.Great. No, not really, and you'd do well to stay away from this trash. Even if you're actually INTO these types of brainless teeny-bopper chik-flix, you can do much better.