Kyle Kingson has it all - looks, intelligence, wealth and opportunity - and a wicked cruel streak. Prone to mocking and humiliating "aggressively unattractive" classmates, he zeroes in on Goth classmate Kendra, inviting her to the school's extravagant environmental bash. Kendra accepts, and, true to form, Kyle blows her off in a particularly savage fashion. She retaliates by casting a spell that physically transforms him into everything he despises. Enraged by his horrible and unrecognizable appearance he confronts Kendra and learns that the only solution to the curse is to find someone that will love him as he is - a task he considers impossible. Repulsed by his appearance, Kyle's callous father banishes him to Brooklyn with a sympathetic housekeeper and blind tutor. As Kyle ponders how to overcome the curse and get his old life back, he chances upon a drug addict in the act of killing a threatening dealer. Seizing the opportunity, Kyle promises the addict freedom and safety for his daughter, Lindy if she will consent to live in Kyle's Brooklyn home. Thus begins Kyle's journey to discover true love in this hyper-modern retelling of the classic "Beauty and the Beast" story.
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance and Adaptation Running Time: 1 hr. 35 min. Release Date: March 4th, 2011 (wide) MPAA Rating: PG 13 for language including some crude comments, drug references and brief violence. Distributor: CBS Films
Cast And Credits
Starring:
Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, Alex Pettyfer, Neil Patrick Harris, Peter Krause
Directed by:
Daniel Barnz
Produced by:
Susan Cartsonis, Roz Weisberg, Michael Flynn
With its gossip-girl-and-guy milieu and adolescent anguish, “Beastly,†a surprisingly painless if ragged redo of “Beauty and the Beast,†looks as if it should be on the CW network. It’s the same old story, a fight for love and glory, though really one for that coveted youth demographic. This update of the durable fairy tale is so strategically aimed at the jailbait set (and their older sisters) that it should come with a complimentary tub of Justin Bieber’s favorite zit zapper. (It was produced by CBS Films, a division of the CBS Corporation. But it’s a small-ville after all: the CW is the offspring of big CBS and Warner Brothers Entertainment.
The movie is representative of a type of industrial filmmaking, one that unites corporate dollars with a writer and director (Daniel Barnz) sort of fresh from the Sundance Film Festival (class of 2008) and various pretty faces that are in heavy rotation in the entertainment weeklies. To wit: Alex Pettyfer, whose model-esque glower is currently adorning ads for his other new film, “I Am Number Four,†plays Kyle, the king of an exclusive academy crammed with elite spawn and one charity case, Lindy (the button-cute Vanessa Hudgens, a star of “High School Musicalâ€). She’s nice and poor, he’s mean and rich, and you know exactly where â€" after the shy glances, drama and wall-to-wall tunes â€" they are going: chaste kiss and fade to black.
Mr. Pettyfer is fine to look at (he’s harder on the ears), though more so after Kyle is cursed by a Goth girl gone wild and witchy, Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen dusted in white face powder and draped in black). For one year his beauty will vanish, leaving him looking as if he plays drums in a garage band. Presto chango, tattoos crawl across his arms and head, now hairless, and angry red slashes groove his skin. His once-smooth face is studded with lumps and boils. To top it off a metallic zigzag runs down the middle of his forehead. I guess Kendra had been reading “Harry Potter†just before throwing down her hex. Kyle’s father (an uncomfortable-looking Peter Krause) eyeballs his transformed scion and banishes him from the palace.
Mr. Barnz tosses in some stabs at directorial wit that almost register as cries for help, including a copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Songs of the Doomed†that Lindy improbably reads one night while Kyle stalks â€" oops â€" watches over her. But otherwise the enjoyment here comes from the spectacle of young love and the familiarity of the tale. Having realized that Lindy might save him, Kyle arranges for her to move into the manorial brownstone where he lives with his tutor (Neil Patrick Harris, amusing) and housekeeper (LisaGay Hamilton). Lindy does, which is good because Ms. Hudgens was to the camera born. Roses and love bloom, and you might giggle yourself sick, but this is the kind of cornball entertainment that rainy afternoons were made for. Throw in a cozy sofa too. “Beastly†will size down well on your television. “Beastly†is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Curses, of the magical and teenage kind.
With its gossip-girl-and-guy milieu and adolescent anguish, “Beastly,†a surprisingly painless if ragged redo of “Beauty and the Beast,†looks as if it should be on the CW network. It’s the same old story, a fight for love and glory, though really one for that coveted youth demographic. This update of the durable fairy tale is so strategically aimed at the jailbait set (and their older sisters) that it should come with a complimentary tub of Justin Bieber’s favorite zit zapper. (It was produced by CBS Films, a division of the CBS Corporation. But it’s a small-ville after all: the CW is the offspring of big CBS and Warner Brothers Entertainment.
The movie is representative of a type of industrial filmmaking, one that unites corporate dollars with a writer and director (Daniel Barnz) sort of fresh from the Sundance Film Festival (class of 2008) and various pretty faces that are in heavy rotation in the entertainment weeklies. To wit: Alex Pettyfer, whose model-esque glower is currently adorning ads for his other new film, “I Am Number Four,†plays Kyle, the king of an exclusive academy crammed with elite spawn and one charity case, Lindy (the button-cute Vanessa Hudgens, a star of “High School Musicalâ€). She’s nice and poor, he’s mean and rich, and you know exactly where â€" after the shy glances, drama and wall-to-wall tunes â€" they are going: chaste kiss and fade to black.
Mr. Barnz tosses in some stabs at directorial wit that almost register as cries for help, including a copy of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Songs of the Doomed†that Lindy improbably reads one night while Kyle stalks â€" oops â€" watches over her. But otherwise the enjoyment here comes from the spectacle of young love and the familiarity of the tale. Having realized that Lindy might save him, Kyle arranges for her to move into the manorial brownstone where he lives with his tutor (Neil Patrick Harris, amusing) and housekeeper (LisaGay Hamilton). Lindy does, which is good because Ms. Hudgens was to the camera born. Roses and love bloom, and you might giggle yourself sick, but this is the kind of cornball entertainment that rainy afternoons were made for. Throw in a cozy sofa too. “Beastly†will size down well on your television. “Beastly†is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Curses, of the magical and teenage kind.
