Beastly (2011)

All Critics (91) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (74) | DVD (4)

'Beastly' is a special brand of hogwash: a fairy tale that preaches inner beauty while refusing to obscure the looks of its doomed hero.

April 20, 2011 Full Review

Time Out

Top Critic

Beneath it all, however, is a movie with a good heart.

March 25, 2011 Full Review | Comments (3)

Rafer Guzman

Newsday

Top Critic

Stunningly bad.

March 5, 2011 Full Review | Comments (4)

Adam Markovitz

Entertainment Weekly

Top Critic

For a fable about a magical curse, "Beastly" is strangely earthbound. And once it starts, it just seems to go on sappily ever after.

March 4, 2011 Full Review

Stephen Whitty

Newark Star-Ledger

Top Critic

There are flashes of genuine wit and charm that, while they cannot support the rest, hint at what was intended and not realized.

March 4, 2011 Full Review

Linda Holmes

NPR

Top Critic

Beastly gets one timeless fact right: For hatchet faces, fatty cakes and Frankenskanks, high school can definitely feel like a curse.

March 4, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

Under-rated.

January 28, 2013 Full Review

Roger Moore

Movie Nation

Daniel Barnz's movie certainly doesn't have any inner depth behind its slick surface, but Neil Patrick Harris's nifty wisecracks, Mary-Kate Olsen's spooky glares and the brisk pacing means that Beastly isn't quite as hideous as you might imagine

August 31, 2011 Full Review

Jason Best

Movie Talk

Hudgens is a likeable on-screen presence, Olsen a complete riot, and Pettyfer teases teeny bits of a performance as a genuinely unpleasant baddie that could be the making of him one day, should the right script come along.

July 14, 2011 Full Review

Mayer Nissim

Digital Spy

It's a cold, often unbearably illogical film, but I almost need to recommend it just for the opportunity to read varied reactions from viewers.

June 17, 2011 Full Review | Comments (2)

Brian Orndorf

BrianOrndorf.com

Beauty and the blech.

June 3, 2011 Full Review

Grae Drake

Movies.com

... tone deaf (do students today really say "hurl chunks" and "Too cool for school"?), predictably plotted, filled with drippy love songs that would embarrass Bryan Ferry.

May 4, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Glenn Lovell

CinemaDope

Some snappy pacing and hints of pain throbbing beneath the cool sarcasm of teens push much of Beastly past its skin-deep pandering to a teen demographic. Still, this 21st-century fairy tale doesn't wilt, but it's not quite refreshed, either.

April 25, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

It's basically programming a generation of young girls to yield to the will of a patriarchal society and grow up to become biddable Stepford Wives. This evil must be stopped.

April 25, 2011 Full Review

Alistair Harkness

Scotsman

Beauty And The Beast except with the lusty, gothic menace that makes that story interesting replaced by moany teenagers and crap acoustic guitar music. Or, in short, Dawson's Freak.

April 24, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Robbie Collin

News of the World

Undermines its central message about substance over style by sacrificing characterisation for glossy visuals.

April 22, 2011 Full Review

Catherine Jones

Liverpool Echo

Beastly doesn't quite cover it. Not even monstrous, gruesome or grotesque come close.

April 22, 2011 Full Review

David Edwards

Daily Mirror [UK]

It's not nearly as bad as you've probably heard, thanks to a mercifully short running time and decent performances throughout, but a sloppy script denies Beastly the hormone-infused gravitas it desperately needs.

April 22, 2011 Full Review

Shaun Munro

What Culture

Beastly has some groan-inducing lines and acting to match.

April 20, 2011 Full Review

Graham Young

Birmingham Post

Fails to convince on every level, thanks to an ironically charisma-free performance from Alex Pettyfer.

April 20, 2011 Full Review

Matthew Turner

ViewLondon

A tween-baiting update that sullies the elegant fairytale with privileged brats in penthouses. Beastly is a crass, spirit-sapping bore.

April 15, 2011 Full Review

Ken McIntyre

Total Film

In every aspect, from story to tone to characterization to visual aesthetic, it's laughably perfunctory, as though everyone involved were too embarrassed to give it more than a half-ironic token effort.

April 4, 2011 Full Review

Tasha Robinson

AV Club

Maybe the next time they tell this story it'll star the cast of Jersey Shore and The Garbage Pail Kids. Why shouldn't it?

April 4, 2011 Full Review

Dave White

Movies.com

• 1. Kyle Kingson: When I was in kindergarten, my dad offered to take me anywhere I wanted. We came to the zoo. He bought me all the toys and candy I wanted. And at the end of the day, he told me that my mother had left.
  2. Kyle Kingson: I haven't seen her since. After he told me, I ran away..and hid in here. And saw this movie. It's about this mother elephant, who's two babies die. She misses them so much..
  3. Kyle Kingson: And when she's migrating back a year later..a year later, she finds her babies bones. Can you imagine that love?
  – Submitted by Farhana M (13 months ago)
• 1. Kendra: Kyle, you suck it.
  – Submitted by Julieta D (15 months ago)
• 1. Lindy Taylor: [to Kyle/Hunter] So here I am okay. Where ever you are. But if you come near me, I'll teaser your ass!
  – Submitted by WillKai K (15 months ago)
• 1. Lindy: What can I say, I'm substance over style.
  – Submitted by WillKai K (21 months ago)

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