Beastly

The Synopsis
Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is completely obsessed with looks, convinced that they will take him anywhere. But when he upsets the witch Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), she puts a spell on him, taking away his looks for what could be forever if he doesn't find someone to fall in love with him in just one year. Devastated, he moves away from the city, only allowing his housekeeper Zola (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and teacher Will (Neil Patrick Harris) to see him. He's convinced he will never break the spell until he meets Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens) who gives him hope that perhaps he has more to offer than just his appearance.

The Review
Okay, this is a guilty one. The film won't be winning any oscars and there's nothing about it to go 'wow' about, but I have to admit, it was sweet.

I tip my hat to Neil Patrick Harris who proves once again that he can bring comedy to a scene beautifully. This I knew he would be able to do before I went to see the film.

What shocked me however was the performance I saw from Mary-Kate Olsen. She was just so... enchanting. She played the witch in this modern day version of Beauty and the Beast and boy did she play it well. I particularly loved the physical theatre that she gave the character. She bent her body around as she talked in an understated way that, as Film-Buddy-Kezia aptly commented "Commanded your attention to her whenever she was in a scene." She owned that part man. Well done Mary-Kate. Plus, you know, if she ever got tired one day, she could always have just thrown her sister in to play the part. Ah the advantages of identical twindom are endless.

There was one scene that was possibly the worst scene I've ever seen in the whole of my film watching life. It was clear that there were two halves to this film, the part that was before Lindy arrives at Beast Kyles house to live and the part after. It was also clear that there was a large transition to get the girl who had barely spoken to Kyle to decide to live there. This would have to be dealt with well to show the marked change.

The film makers I get the impression however, decided to forgo the idea of even attempting to do this well. Instead they decided to go with the option of cramming half an hours worth of transition into two minutes and have the people who perform these two minutes to be pretty much the worst actors in the world. I'm not kidding, it was probably the funniest scene in the whole film purely for how BAD it was.

That being said and overlooked because I was sheepishly enjoying it up to this point. I continued to sheepishly enjoy it, whilst knowing in the back of my mind that this probably wasn't really a good film. But you know what? I really don't think I care. I'm going to say I enjoyed it because I did and in all fairness I will be buying the DVD because it was sweet and I like a bit of feel-good sweet every now and again so I shall generously give it four faces from me... with the warning that this one you may not agree with.

Red Riding Hood

The Synopsis
Valarie (Amanda Seyfried) lives in a village that is haunted each month by a werewolf. This werewolf, the town soon begins to realise could only be one of them. Valarie has to find out who this wolf is, could it be her secret love Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the man that she is betrothed to Henry (Max Irons) or even her own Grandmother (Julie Christie).

The Review
Okay, so to say I've been excited about seeing this one would be a bit of an understatement. The idea around the film caught my eye and then to top it all off Amanda Seyfried was starring in it, Catherine Hardwicke was directing it and Leonardo Di Caprio was a producer. How could it possibly be anything other than amazing?

I think that there may be the reason for my not actually enjoying it as much as I hoped. My standards were unbelievably high and although it was an entertaining and highly competent film, there were just a few things that forced it to fall short of how great it could have been.

Let's start off with the things I did like. The iconic images from the fairy tale were portrayed in amazing light throughout the film. For any of you who have seen the trailer, you might remember the shot of Valarie walking up a snow filled mountain a long trail of red cloak blowing behind her. The magnificent red on white imagery was a token part all the way through as you can see in the above picture. It made me feel excited about what the film had to offer, like seeing a fairy tale shown with some level of reality (well, as real as you can get when your talking about a village being terrorised by a werewolf).

I also loved how true it was to the fairy tale whilst completely standing out as it's own piece. It kept the memorable scenes of the travelling to Grandma's with a basket and red cloak and managed to get away with using the "Grandmother, what big eyes you have" sequence without losing the integrity of the film which was quite a feat. There was one particular moment close to the end where they may have stretched the bounds of reality a little too much in order to accommodate the fairy tale but all in all, an awesome job.

Okay, here are the bits that forced me to drop a face off my overall score. As important as the whole "Whodunnit" plot was to the story, I fear they may have gone a little overboard. Due to absolutely everyone being a possible murderer it was really hard for me to form any kind of attachment to the characters or their relationships with each other. This left me therefore uncomfortable throughout the film and not really able to settle on any particular character. It caused a detachment that I don't think they intended to make.

Also the ending was a little strange and although Film-Buddy-Kezia seemed to approve of it, I was on the fence. Probably due to the fact that I had no involvement with the film by the end. That whole premise unfortunately just threw the quality of the film slightly out of whack but other than that, it was an enjoyable film that I would see again now I am aware of what happens. I might actually enjoy it a lot better that way.

Three faces from me.