New Release: Beastly

I'm sure if you know me at all you're not surprised that I went and paid money to see this movie.  Was I ashamed, yes.  Do I regret it, not really.  Beastly is nothing more than the story of Beauty and the Beast set in a ritzy private school in Manhattan.  Our future Beast, Kyle - Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number Four) - has his high school career all sewn up.  He's rich, gorgeous, and about to become student body president.  His dad, Peter Krause, is a TV anchorman and knows that people only like you in proportion to how good looking you are.  He's drilled this into his son.  However, there's a witch at school Kendra (Mary-Kate Olson) and she's pissed off by how shallow Kyle has become and wants to make him pay for it.  She casts a spell on him that he'll become hideous and has a year to get "true love's kiss" or he'll stay that way.  His dad banishes him to either Westchester or New Jersey and gets him a tutor, Neil Patrick Harris.  

Enter Vanessa Hudgens, student body treasurer and daughter of a drug addict whose dealer promises to kill his daughter if he doesn't get paid.  Kyle always had a secret crush on her and offers his banished home to keep her safe until the drug dealer is caught. Yadda, yadda, yadda, you know what happens.  Overall, I kept wanting more scenes with NPH and surprisingly Mary-Kate Olson - both much deeper and more interesting characters.  Pettyfer and Hudgens were barely characters - particularly Hudgens, and seemed more like a decent TV movie, while the rest of the production did a good to try to put a new spin on an old tale. Maybe if I was in high school I would have enjoyed this more, but I doubt it. Overall nothing more than I expected, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either.  2 of 5 stars/lambs