Once upon a time in shit land...
I just want to rant about how horrid Beastly was. It was an 1hr and 30mins of utter shit. I was so bored I thought the movie was more than 2hrs long and was surprised when I got out of the theater it was still daylight.
I don't even like 'chick flicks' but I willed myself to go see this movie only because I thought the book was a guilty, easy reading, cynical and funny read. Alex Finn's novel did a great job of weaving in the Beauty and the Beast fairytale in a modern setting with an ultra obnoxious lead.
The movie however was a complete disgrace and horrible. I did not enjoy it which disappointed me because I usually like retellings of fairytales.
Beastly the film version was just one big bowl of stupid and thank god for Neil Patrick Harris’ stint as a tutor here because if it wasn’t for him it would just be one big mess. First off, how is that guy up there “Beastly” or “Ugly?” He looks like some dude who dances @ raves or the lead singer of some European punk band. There was no magic, no heart, not even a moral lesson because in the end it was all still superficial. Vanessa Hudgens is a terrible actress and Alex Pettyfer had a terrible American accent and slips in and out of his British one. It got so distracting because it seemed like he was trying too hard to mask it which obviously didn’t work. I've never seen a movie waste a story of that age old lesson of telling people that it's "what's inside that counts." They made the lead actress so completely Mary Sue that it hurt a little. Ah well - I know 12year old girls would probably like it but the sad thing is, I think when I was 12 I would see through the shit fest too.