Beastly: Embrace the Suck

Principle Actors: Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, Mary-Kate Olsen
Directed by: Daniel Barnz
Brief description: A modern-day take on the "Beauty and the Beast" tale where a New York teen is transformed into a hideous monster in order to find true love. (via imdb.com)
My Rating: 3 out of 5

I know part of the title says, "Embrace the Suck," but the movie wasn't entirely sucky. That's actually a significant line in the movie. Or at least one they emphasized a few times at the beginning. Anywho, moving on.

As I said, the movie wasn't entirely bad. I did cringe a few times, and I might have gotten lost once or twice, but I think that was mostly a dialogue problem. It was obviously geared towards a middle and high school audience. The world it was set in was not the real world, although it purported to be. Seriously, people don't act the way they did in real life. So there's that.

There were also some cringe worthy moments and your obligatory high school, teenage girl, head in the clouds moments. Basically, this is your typical teen romance movie.

Let's get to the good stuff.

First, there's this:

A golden ray of sunshine. Not only did he make the movie better, but he brought the funny and some humanity to a very one dimensional world. I just love him.

Then there's this:

A very interesting pick for the witch that gives our main man the curse. She did a good job with the majority of her scenes. My favorite part was definitely her wardrobe though. And her shoes! My god those were killer shoes! Easily the best part of the movie after NPH. I think hers and NPH's scenes alone are worth seeing the movie.

Then, of course, we have this:

 But he actually looks like this for most of the movie:

This is the third movie I've seen him in, the second since he's grown up. He definitely has potential. There were times in this movie when I wanted to hang my head in shame, and I might have actually pulled something when I rolled my eyes, but I think that might have something to do with the direction given. But, he did do a fairly good job with what he was given. We shall see what the future brings for Mr. Pettyfer.

Lastly, we have:

Ms. Hudgens, of High School Musical fame. I'd say we have another average actress on our hands. I didn't see anything special in her performance. She wasn't terrible, but she certainly didn't knock it out of the park. Pettyfer and Olsen outshone her by far. There could be two reasons for this. Either a) she is an average actress, or b) the director mishandled her part. I'm guessing a combination of the two. It does take two to tango after all. I mentioned earlier that I felt lost at times and that it was a dialogue problem. Let me here clarify that that was Ms. Hudgens' dialogue that lost me. In one scene her lines seemed slurred and hard to follow. They were at a party, so it's possible she was supposed to be drunk, but it wasn't very clear either way. Other times her lines were rushed and so I missed what she said. Again, these little things could be attributed to either average acting or directing. Maybe better next time?

All in all, if you're a teenager or like teen romances, then this is the flick for you! If, however, you'd like to see something else, this movie is totally skippable.

Also out (for those of you skipping): Barney's Version, Cedar Rapids, Drive Angry (not recommended), Gnomeo and Juliet, Hall Pass (not recommended), Just Go With It, No Strings Attached, Rango (recommended), Take Me Home Tonight, The Adjustment Bureau, and Unknown.

I sincerely wish I could see them all and give you guys reviews, but funds are limited :-(  Makes me wish I hadn't spent $9.50 on tonights movie. Fear not though! Monday will bring another review, this one hopefully better!

And for the heck of it: