Beastly
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 26
  3. Negative: 11 out of 26
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  1. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    Mar 4, 2011
    38
    The school freak, played by Mary-Kate Olsen, misses a chance to really have some fun as this story's wicked witch.
  2. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    Mar 3, 2011
    38
    It's dogged by awkward dialogue, a ridiculous plot and lackluster performances, especially by the leads.
  3. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    Mar 3, 2011
    38
    Beastly offers a thoroughly dopey reread of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    Mar 3, 2011
    30
    Rarely do films from Hollywood emerge in such an inane manner. Its rote characters are inevitably in predictable situations with no subtext or subtlety to any of their predicaments.
  5. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    Mar 3, 2011
    30
    Loosely adapted from Alex Flinn's young-adult novel, this "Beauty and the Beast" update is a pallid, formulaic teen romance that might have benefited from a little snark.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    Mar 3, 2011
    25
    The characterization couldn't be more flagrant if the soundtrack creaked out an oldie by a certain ancient pop quintet: You're a candy girl.
  7. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Keith Uhlich
    Mar 8, 2011
    20
    Dull and perfunctory, the film's saving grace is MVP Neil Patrick Harris as Kyle's blind tutor, who has a witty aside for every woodenly expressed sentiment. You go, Doog!
  8. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Randy Cordova
    Mar 2, 2011
    20
    There is one good thing you can say about Beastly: The title perfectly sums up what you'll see on screen.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Adam Markovitz
    Mar 5, 2011
    16
    Spectacularly poor judgment in everything from acting to costuming (Olsen's Harajuku-troll get-up is scarier than her curse) puts Beastly right on the cusp of the so-bad-it's-good Hall of Shame.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    Mar 3, 2011
    16
    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.
  11. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Mar 4, 2011
    12
    More than lives up to its name with ultra-campy performances, high-glucose direction, laughable dialogue, cheesy effects and a back-lot simulation of a Manhattan street that wouldn't pass muster on an after-school special.

User Reviews

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User Score
5.3 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 25
  3. Negative: 9 out of 25
  1. AaronM
    4
    It's a movie you want to like, but the dialogue is often weak and the story line had too many implausible moments. The performances by Lisa Gay Hamilton and Neil Patrick Harris were timely and engaging and also the freshest parts of the story. But, ultimately, you end up wishing the story for the two main characters Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens was stronger and bolder and thus altogether different.… Full Review »
  2. dave021984
    10
    This is a nice movie ! the writting is goood and we have seen all good aspects of getting this up there. More over the acting was equally nice and we had to choose who acted better

    http://theoutsourcebot.com    … Full Review »
  3. Shiira
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Liam Neeson in Sam Raimi's "Darkman", now that's a guy who needed to hide in dark places. A victim of sabotage, a lab explosion rendered Dr. Peyton Westlake completely unrecognizable. The renowned chemist looked as if he had contacted the flesh-eating virus. The moviegoer understood why he stopped circulating in public, shunning the daylight and only coming out at night. He was, by anybody's standards, beastly. On the other hand, Kyle Kingson(Alex Pettyfer), the uber a*shole who finds himself disfigured when he angers the wrong goth, has facial alterations that are conspicuously artful, highlighted by two proportional red slashes and a squiggly metallic branch running down his forehead. Since Kyle rules the school, he could probably pull this new look off, but true to his word, the Aryan prepster doesn't take kindly to idiosyncrasies, and exiles himself from a world, he believes, where only beautiful people matter. Courtesy of his image-obsessed father(Peter Krausse), Kyle takes up residence in a snazzy townhouse, complete with a black maid(Lisa Gay Hamilton) and a blind tutor(Neil Patrick Harris). It's good to be rich. Conversely, Dr. Westlake lived in an abandoned warehouse. When Kendra(Mary Kate Olsen) puts a spell on her tormentor, the objective is to put this alpha male in his proper place, but far from learning a lesson, Kyle serves his penance in relative luxury. Although "Beastly" is supposed to be a contemporized take on "Beauty and the Beast"(originally an eighteenth century fairy tale written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve), a beauty ill-serves the material, because this time around, it's less about the girl seeing the inner beauty of another living being, than the beast who needs to learn that "beauty is only skin deep". In a sense, and this is the fault of the casting, it does, and that's why "Beastly" doesn't make a lick of sense. Lindy(Vanessa Hudgens) is no Martha Dumptruck, the Westerberg High outcast in Michael Lehman's "Heathers", but she represents the film's idea of an outcast. Despite always being the prettiest girl in the room, Lindy says things like, "What can I say. I'm substance over style," and "Wow. Looks are really important to you," musings which sound galling from somebody so perfectly chiseled. This supposed dark horse is supposed to function as a contrast from the girls that the vanity-stricken pretty boy normally dates, and incredibly, that's exactly how "Beastly" utilizes Hudgens, treating her as an underdog in the Molly Ringwald tradition, the plain girl who is unrequitedly in love with the big man on campus. At a school dance, Lindy. the school treasurer(!), makes sure that each table has its own decorative candle, whereas Sloan(Dakota Johnson), the uber a*shole's girlfriend, basks in her own loveliness, breathing in the rarefied air of Kyle's company, a world where pretty girls rebuff corsages for being the wrong color. Wanting to be part of that world too, if only for a little while, Lindy convinces Kyle to pose for a picture with her, assuring the elitist snob that she's "worthy" of him. Meanwhile, the newly-elected Green committee president wears a confused look, as if he's baffled by his attraction to such a common girl, a girl of substance. After the transformation, Kyle spies on her, as she pounds the Manhattan pavement nightly looking for her alcoholic father. When Lindy eventually moves in with him(don't ask, the circumstances surrounding this development is hopelessly contrived), it's supposed to make for a touching love story: two lost and lonely souls, together at last, but the characters these two pin-up quality actors embody are an insult to the lost and lonely. Here's the better movie. If Kyle ended up with Kendra, like the athlete(Emilio Estevez) who finally sees the inner beauty of the "basket case"(Ally Sheedy) in John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club", with the exception that the witch wouldn't have to compromise(as Allison Reynolds did) and wipe off her dramatic makeup, then maybe you'd have a movie that meant something. "Beastly" carries with it the message that looks don't matter, but on closer inspection, the film telegraphs something quite the opposite. "Beastly" is as image-conscious as its raging megalomaniac of a hero.… Full Review »
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