Beastly

Atrocious acting paired with bad writing is a mix for a fantastically laughable film.

The entire time all I could think was "people actually produced this crap?" The awful writing is only -slightly- redeemable by the laughable, but bad acting. Vanessa Hugdens (also in recently release action film, Sucker Punch, but more notable is her roles in the High School Musical trilogy) is so terrible in this movie I almost see her acting career going nowhere. Actually, I take that back. While the acting skills she used in this film were so bad, I am willing to give her the benefit of my doubt and say with her amazing good looks she has potential to be another Jessica Alba, but then again that isn't saying much.

This film also stars a campy, but always enjoyable, Neil Patrick Harris. His role of the blind-wise man is very cliche for any actor, but Neil's performance makes this the only believable character in the entire movie.

So as not to sound completely cut-throat, I decided to go beyond the acting and try to understand this movie from a more forgiving angle. While the acting was awful, the director, Daniel Barnz, has some great shots. So where did this movie go wrong? The writing. Mr Barnz also wrote the screenplay, yet this film was based on a novel (same title as the movie) by author Alex Flinn. I haven't read the novel, but I have read several reviews which casually compair it to Stephanie Meyer's famed vampire series and also speak of the book in a "great for teens, because it focus' on teen issues," way. This I can respect, but however good the book might have been the fault can't entirely land on Ms Flinn, for there seems to have been -plenty- lost in the translation to the big screen.

The substance of this film would appeal only to those with a liking for "high school drama, with mythical and fantasy tie-ins." It is suppose to be a retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," and most of the major plot points are there, but I'm not about to say that it's anything short of a b-movie knock off.

In short, if a movie ever has a Olsen twin, don't waste your time. I'd say you're better off waiting for this movie to come out on VHS.