Beastly

Year of release : 2011

 

Run time : 1h26min

 

Genre : Romance / Fantasy

 

Cast : Alex Pettyfer , Vanessa Hudgens , Mary-Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris, Peter Krause

 

 

The movie is loosely based on the 2007 book by Alex Flinn, a retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" story,which by the way,I read,and has nothing to do with the movie,the book has a plot.

Kyle Kingston wants to be the president of the Green Committee although he doesn’t care about anything green. He even gives an atrocious and appalling speech about looks, which has nothing to do with what he’s running for, and which instead of disgusting his peers, has them cheering for him!

Kendra, who’s known as a witch amongst her peers, leaves right after he finishes his ridiculous speech, thing which doesn’t please him. Right after he discovers she drew over his pictures, he talks to her, and she states that looks seem to be very important to him.

After he wins the presidency, he asks Kendra to a party, saying he has VIP tickets. Kendra warns him not to mess with her, for she’s known to be a witch (to which he says it’s vicious gossip), and agrees to play along, as everyone deserves a second chance.

She tells him only idiots scr3w with witches, and I guess he is one, because he decides to humiliate her in front of everyone at the party.

Kendra only quotes him, and right after, he starts feeling sick, and as he barely gets home, he sees Kendra who tells him he has a year to find someone to love him in the new state he’s in, or he’ll remain ugly forever. When he looks in the mirror he sees he is as ugly on the outside, as he is on the inside, with tattoos and scars covering his face and body, his pretty blond hair replaced with baldness (I actually liked this whole look).

Seeing him, his father takes him to the best specialists in the field, but they say they can’t fix him. Kyle has enough when his father says they’ll risk anything, including him dying, to fix his face.

His father puts Kyle in one of their secluded houses, with the maid, and promises to come stay with him, but he never even visits or calls him.

He sends him a blind tutor, to teach him what he can’t learn anymore from not going to school.

After going to a Halloween party where he sees his girlfriend (that he didn’t see in 5 months due to his condition) with his best friend, he sees Lindy (they always come up with weird, unusual names in Young Adult books ), a girl he’s been talking to a few times before his change, and liked.

He starts looking her up on the internet, and finds her blog. He starts getting interested in her and her likes, and following her around, he sees her going after her father who seems to have problems. After her father k1lls a man he owes money to, Kyle asks him to let Lindy stay with him, or he’ll go to the police. Her father agrees.

Lindy doesn’t like having to move to a stranger’s place, and at first doesn’t come out of her attic room.

Kyle is trying to impress her with expensive gifts which she hates. So, talking to his maid, he starts thinking about what she likes, and gives her that. This approach seems to work, but she still seems to want to get away, as she has a trip to Machu Picchu planned for years.

 

The movie is a weak, B movie,but I liked it. The movie ,unlike the book,only focuses on the love story,there's nothing else,everything else is told to us.The book was better ,in the book he looked like a lion and talked to other bewitched teenagers. There was a witch coven and I think the maid was a rogue one.

Kyle Kingston is a very vain boy, who only talks and cares about looks. That's all that matters to him. He's as vain,shallow, and unattractive on the inside as he is attractive on the outside. We soon discover this is all due to his father who is obsessed with looks.

He is mean to everyone, including their maid.

 

Kyle has the amazing idea to talk trash to a witch and prank her the way he does to everybody else, so Kendra gives him a taste of his own medicine. Kyle becomes the unattractive being he is on the inside,outside. 

Because I like witches,I actually liked Kendra.

When it comes to the acting I thought Vanessa and Mary Kate are not that good in this one.

I liked Neil Patrick Harris although I thought that he’s a bit too much for a blind man.

Dakota Johnson has a small role as Kyle’s girlfriend.

 

The soundtrack was amazing.

The visual effects and prosthetics were good. It took 7 hours to put the prosthetics on Alex Pettyfer. It consisted of 60 tattoos and scars .

The movie received negative reviews from critics (with only a 20% Tomatometer and a 40 metascore against a 48% popcorn meter on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.3 user score on Metacritic), and grossed 43.2 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 17 million.

Cinema Score audiences gave it a B+ on an A+ to F scale!

The movie has been in the works since 2007!

Rating : Worth a watch !