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Critics Consensus: Fundamentally misguided, poorly written, and badly acted, Beastly adds little to the legacy of its timeless source material.
Critic Consensus: Fundamentally misguided, poorly written, and badly acted, Beastly adds little to the legacy of its timeless source material.
All Critics (93) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (74) | DVD (3)
'Beastly' is a special brand of hogwash: a fairy tale that preaches inner beauty while refusing to obscure the looks of its doomed hero.
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.
Beneath it all, however, is a movie with a good heart.
Stunningly bad.
Teens convinced that a pimple will kill their social life will find Beastly bracingly honest. It's the cynicism, not the phoned-in uplift, that works in this JV Grand Guignol.
For a fable about a magical curse, "Beastly" is strangely earthbound. And once it starts, it just seems to go on sappily ever after.
Aimed squarely at Twilight's teenage fans, this is about as subtle as a baseball bat to the head and only marginally more enjoyable.
Beastly isn't good but it's not nearly as awful as I expected.
So this isn't a great re-imagining of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, but Beastly does have mass tweener appeal.
Under-rated.
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
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.
I was very excited to see this film, a neo-Beauty and the Beast sounds intriguing. Unfortunately with high expectations comes greater pressure to succeed. And this film goes down as one of my most disappointing films of all time. The acting seems more suited for a teenage television show. There were several unbelievable scenes involving a character standing unnoticed only a few steps away from another individual. The plotline involving Lindy being forced into staying with the "Beast" was was not convincing; the character of her father in particular was not well thought out. Finally Ive heard multiple people point out how cool the main character looked after he turned 'ugly'. In fact, Ive seen quite a lot of people that intentionally give themselves a similiar look! Neil Patrick Harris was wonderful and is actually a bright spot in the movie. When the movie was over the basic theme that was left was not 'beauty within' but more like 'it doesnt matter how ugly you become as long as you have money...'
Super Reviewer
Another film that appears to have been snatched out of the pages of a high school girl's journal. Immature characters with vapid character development -- which is particularly problematic when teenage character development is the whole point of the film. And that Olsen girl?! Awful! Stick to lunch pail modeling, Mary Kate!
I have to admit, it was better than I expected (by that I mean I could sit through it!). Both the leads I found pretty weak as actors. For me the highlight was Mary Kate Olsen as the goth witch. Seriously, she was the most convincing part in this (I can't believe I am saying that). I totally bought her as a bit twisted and sod the romance, the ending with her character was the best bit! I didn't like the makeup on the beast very much. There is ugly and then there's ridiculous. His markings and veins crossed the line to ridiculous.
So awful. The championing of superficial qualities in the script is overbearing and cliche, even for high school students. Alex Pettyfer is just a pretty face, and Vanessa Hudgens is so hipsterly twee.
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