Beastly

Beastly is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and stars Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, and NPH. It's kind of like what they did with Cinderella in the movie with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray only slightly darker and less romantic.

The beginning is a little choppy and I get that they are trying to tell us everything we need to know about the characters before Kyle is changed into a beast, but it feels a little cramped. The two main characters could be played by any one really, Alex and Vanessa don't offer anything special or different, but Neil Patrick Harris is charming as always, and provides a little bit of needed humour. It's also nice to see Mary Kate Olsen in something, haven't seen those twins in much, and when they are out in public they usually look like bums, so while my Michelle Tanner nostalgia has not been fulfilled, it was nice to seen an Olsen looking good.

The story doesn't tell us anything he haven't heard before, but the parallels with the original story were mostly cute, like how the girl likes roses, and how the beast tries to win her over with gifts. I never really felt the love though, Hudgens is boring and cliche, and the situation with her dad is weird, and you never really feel like she loves the guy, even when she says so. The best acting she did was when she tells Kyle that he's a good friend - I genuinely believed her and thought maybe it wouldn't end happily ever after. I also thought this again at the end when the last flower blooms on his wrist or whatever, and hoped that he would stay ugly, what's so wrong with that, she loves you anyways darn it! But he does turn back pretty and I really wondered how much he had changed.

Beastly keeps a good pace, so you don't really get bored. It's pretty shallow and nothing special though.