Title: Beastly
Director: Daniel Barnes
Format: DVD released June 2011
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Young adult, Romance, Fantasy
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hugens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris
Kyle is a total hottie. He’s tall, got a perfectly tousled head of blond hair, a chiseled jaw and a rockin’ bod. What’s not to love? Ummmm, his personality. Sure he’s looking hot, but then he opens up those kissable lips.
Ooops. Should’ve left them closed.
Cause now my dreams for the prefect man are shattered….
……or are they?
Upon acting like a complete and utter jerkface, he pisses off the one gal you should never cross: a witch. And she isn’t so nice. But hey, would you be if some guy called you an ugly cow? Crap, I’d make him suffer too.  And she does just that by turning him into something he can never imagine: an ugly person…an outsider.
Right after spoofing away his handsome good looks she tells him that only three little words can cure his plight. You guessed it: I love you.
Oh, yeah, and that he’s got only one year to earn some love or he will be stuck like this forever…
Let me start off by saying that I am a complete sucker for this kind of movie. Yeah, so maybe I’m a little cheesy with a little dash of hopeless romantic thrown in, but there you have it. I’m just keepin’ real….keepin’ it real.
I read the book Beastly by Alex Flynn that this movie was adapted from, so when I saw the trailer for this movie I was excited because I really enjoyed the book. But my like of the book is for another time…
I will admit that I was skeptical about the movie because the books are usually so much better. And then there’s the way he looks. In the book he was a beast. Like a real beast, with hair and fangs and claws. In the movie he was tattooed up and bald. A little different – wouldn’t you say?
Turns out, I didn’t mind so much. In fact, I was kind of fascinated by the way he looked; he wasn’t scary in the least to me. I kept wondering what it would be like to touch him. Would his tattoos be raised, would his skin be rough? What about the other ways he was deformed and the way those red lines ran through his skin…would they feel like embedded metal?? My fingers itched to touch him…
And, really, it was a nice twist on the way someone could be made into a beast.
The plot was unoriginal…but it was supposed to be. It was a retake on a classic. It was romantic, and it was much better than I expected it to be. I actually really liked it. When I was looking at pics to save for this review I came across some other reviews…a lot of them unfavorable.
Those people must be grumpy with hardened hearts…maybe they need a visit from Kendra (the witch). Or, maybe, I’m just sappy.
I liked Alex in this role. I thought he did a good job portraying a kid who was being who he thought he should be – not who he really was deep down. I thought Vanessa did a good job as playing a girl who actually saw what the guy tried to hide. I thought the pair had pretty good chemistry.
Some people might argue that he was whiny and stalker-ish. If some witch turned me ugly and then my dad dumped me off in hiding because he couldn’t deal I might whine too. But to be fair, he didn’t really whine. He just hid. Hid from himself as much as from the way he looked. And, I liked the way he watched her…the way he followed her. Because when he was following her he wasn’t thinking about himself he was thinking about her. She exuded the qualities that he himself wished to possess…and did, but didn’t know it.
Something else I really enjoyed about the movie was the quality. The color and the settings were eye catching and beautiful. The colors were so clear and somehow pure. The settings were real and didn’t look staged. And the lake house…I might give up an appendage for that house. In fact, I’d seriously consider it. (especially if hottie was there too.)
The movie did vary from the book, but let’s be frank: the movie usually always does. It has to translate from page to screen and be almost like eye candy for the viewer. Things are always changed because a movie doesn’t have the time a book does.
If you like classic fairytales and classic storylines, you will probably like this movie. If you like hot guys and pretty girls you will like this movie. If you like Neil Patrick Harris playing a funny blind dude you will definitely like this movie. Here’s the thing: don’t sit down to watch and expect it not to be a little corny and romantic because then you are cheating yourself out of that little smile that plays on your lips (that you try and hide) when you watch, or the way you pause when you think he might kiss her or the way your belly flips when he realizes that she sees well beyond his face.
If these things aren’t enough to get you to pay a buck at the Redbox then how about this: while I was watching this movie I was not making mental notes of things to write in this review (I do that a lot when I am watching or reading and know I am doing a review) because I was involved with the characters. If anything can get me out of my head like that then I know it’s a winner.
I wonder how many hopeless romantics are out there that feel the same as I do or am I a dying breed? Grab some candy, a blanket and your honey and curl up to watch this movie. After months of waiting to rent this movie, I can honestly say that it was worth the wait.

4 Comments

  1. Great review Cambria, I have to add this one to my wish list, dam girl my list is getting to big now, stop review all these great books I now HAVE to read lol. 🙂
    Nat

  2. I love ya Nat! And my list is terribly out of control too and u have xontributed tobthat as well! Lol. Guess we r even!

  3. I thought the movie was excellent as well. Of course I almost never agree with reviewers on movies. I like the ones that the professional reviewers tear apart, but then again that's just me.

  4. I often dont agree withe critics either and most of my friends that have watched this movie enjoyed it as well. Its a shame that there are so many bad reviews of it out there…bc it was worth watching!

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