Beastly

Sucker Punch

In Zack Snyder's super-stylized action flick, Emily Browning stars as a traumatized young woman known only as "Baby Doll" who is sent off to a mental hospital. She re-imagines her surroundings as a burlesque-ish brothel, and recruits her fellow patients, including Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone, to help break out. Writer/director Snyder is certainly ambitious, but the dialogue and story fall short (as do the skimpy costumes). The DVD extras include an extended cut, a soundtrack featurette, a split-screen mode with the director, and four animated shorts.

22%

Beastly

In this update of Beauty and the Beast, Alex Pettyfer plays spoiled high school student Kyle. His cruelty finally gets the better of him when a witchy peer (Mary-Kate Olsen) puts a spell on him and makes him as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside. Kyle becomes a recluse in New Jersey, with only a blind tutor (Neil Patrick Harris) to visit him. He manipulates a classmate (Vanessa Hudgens) into coming to live with him, and of course, they fall for each other, even though Kyle's face is a mess of tattoos and scar tissue. You can guess what comes next. Beastly is a definite cheese fest, so proceed with caution. The extras on the DVD include an alternate ending, deleted scenes, and a music video.

16%

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Animated films have been landing on the top of the box office heap for the past couple of weekends now. While Gnomeo and Juliet won last week, this weekend's new release Rango claimed the number one spot. The Johnny Depp-voiced flick earned $38 million, while Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's romantic thriller The Adjustment Bureau trailed it with $20.9 million.

Beastly managed to get third place with $10.1 million, followed by the Farrelly brother's crass comedy Hall Pass, which brought in $9 million. Completing the top five was last week's champ Gnomeo and Juliet with $6.9 million. Newbie Take Me Home Tonight had a rough go, making just $3.5 million and landing it in the 11th spot.

Beastly is like a train wreck you can't look away from. Knowing the movie is a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a pair of teen lovers may prepare you to expect a certain amount of cheesiness, but you won't be prepared enough. Beastly excels at being ridiculous, and when you're not cringing, you're laughing. Sadly, the humor is rarely intentional.

Hotshot high schooler Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) has it all: looks, money, and popularity. The only thing he loves more than himself is putting others down. His oppressive bullying makes him the target of Mary-Kate Olsen's teen witch Kendra, who puts a spell on Kyle to teach him a lesson. Transforming his perfect face into a melange of scar tissue, tattoos, and open wounds, Kendra warns Kyle that he'll have to keep his new look forever unless he finds someone to love him. Enter Lindy (Vanessa Hudgens), the impoverished scholarship student who sees behind Kyle's looks and becomes the key to releasing him from his ugly-face prison. Their love story has the potential to be sweet and disarming, but the nonsensical storytelling and subpar acting sabotage any chance at success. To find out why Beastly is so bad, just read more