Beastly nearly succeeds at hiding all of its woes behind its comedic exterior. Unfortunately, the film has a devastatingly pretentious beginning and an unwieldy message. This modern day reimagining of the classic Beauty and the Beast tale goes after the teen heart with particular verve. While the film will obviously squander the good looks of star Alex Pettyfer, it makes an effort to show him doing shirtless pull-ups in the opening scene. All of this is laughably wrong, and yet the comedic bits that Beastly provides almost wipes the bad taste from your mouth by the third act. Instead of laughing at it, you begin laughing with it. However, all of its levity can only go so far to save this mixed message fairy tale about how far love can go. Hit the jump for my full review.

CBS Films has given us 5 clips for their upcoming film, Beastly.  The film – directed by Daniel Barnz (Phoebe in Wonderland) – is a modern reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, which places the classic tale in a high school setting.  Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number 4) stars as a popular handsome high school student that finds himself turned into a beast, who then has one year to find someone who can love him so that he can reverse the curse.  The film also stars Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, and Mary-Kate Olsen.  Beastly is set to open on March 4.  Hit the jump to watch the clips:

CBS Films has released a new trailer for their upcoming film, Beastly.  The film – directed by Daniel Barnz (Phoebe in Wonderland) – is a modern reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, which places the classic tale in a high school setting.  Alex Pettyfer (I Am Number 4) stars as a popular handsome high school student that finds himself turned into a beast, who then has one year to find someone who can love him so that he can reverse the curse.  The film also stars Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, and Mary-Kate Olsen.  Beastly is set to open on March 18.  You can hit the jump to watch the trailer and check out 21 images:

A recent behind-the-scenes featurette shed some light on how Beastly, a teenage update on the Beauty and the Beast story, will approach its source material.  CBS Films has released a new trailer for the reimagining, which shows off Beastly‘s brooding tone amid a more narrative form.  The film stars Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Neil Patrick Harris, and Mary-Kate Olsen; Daniel Barns (Phoebe in Wonderland) directed from his own script.

Check out the trailer–plus a look at the Beastly‘s potential–after the jump.

A new trailer/behind-the-scenes special for the teen fantasy-romance Beastly has hit the net.  Based on the best-selling 2007 novel of the same name by Alex Flinn, the film stars Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Hudgens, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Neil Patrick Harris. An “edgy” modern-day retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, it centers on the vain, douchey, and frequently shirtless 17-year-old Kyle Kingson (Pettyfer), who’s magically disfigured by a classmate/witch (Olsen) and given one year to find someone to love him for what’s on the inside or else be stuck with his “beastly” appearance for life; he promptly sets his sights on the pretty but previously “unnoticed” Linda Taylor (Hudgens). Hit the jump to check it out.

Variety is reporting that Peter Krause, best known for playing Nate on HBO’s “Six Feet Under”, has joined the cast of “Beastly” - CBS Film’s adaptation of the 2007 novel by Alex Flinn.  A modern retelling of the “Beauty and the Beast” story, “Beastly” is currently filming in Montreal with Alex Pettyfer (“Stormbreaker”) playing the Manhattan teen who is cursed into ugliness by a young witch.  Mary Kate Olsen is playing the witch with Krause set to play the Beast’s father who, as a punishment for being so damn hideous, banishes his son… to Brooklyn!!  The horror!  Vanessa Hudgens is playing Linda (aka “Beauty”) with Neil Patrick Harris as the blind tutor who braves the streets of Bensonhurst along with the young beast boy…