In the upcoming film Beastly, Mary-Kate Olsen curses handsome-but-vain Alex Pettyfer (the rising star who was just cast in I Am Number Four) with a twisted visage that teaches him that real beauty comes from within. Fortunately, there's one thing about the newly hideous, frequently shirtless Pettyfer that survives unscathed: his killer abs.
It's that kind of compromise that makes Beastly more palatable for the young girls who are being wooed to see this take on the classic Beauty and the Beast story, but that's not to say it doesn't have a couple things going for it: Neil Patrick Harris, for one, and the writer/director Daniel Barnz, who made the underseen Phoebe in Wonderland. It just strikes me that in today's era of vain, obsessively groomed men, a butterface is one thing, but the loss of a hard-fought-for waistline is an altogether worse curse entirely.
VERDICT: Needs more Olsen.
MTV Rough Cut: Vanessa Hudgens And 'Beastly' Trailer Premiere [MTV]