Customer Reviews

Beautiful Creatures

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw this movie with a little hesitation. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I had read sounded all too interesting. And from the beginning, I was completely enjoying it.

The dark comedy stars Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Chain Reaction) and Susan Lynch (Waking Ned Devine) as two women trapped in bad relationships. The two meet by accident, when Dorothy (Lynch) stumbles across Petula (Weisz) being beaten by her boyfriend. As the boyfriend begins choking Petula, Dorothy realizes she must help her. Acting on instinct, Dorothy grabs a large pipe and whacks the man in the head. The two take the unconscious man back to Dorothy's apartment. There, the two introduce themselves. When the boyfriend wakes up, he falls from the bathtub (where Petula and Dorothy had placed him for the time being) he bangs his head. Now Petula and Dorothy have a dead body to deal with. Not just some man either. Petula's boyfriend is the younger brother of a very wealthy and very powerful man. Determined to shift the blame away from themselves, (accident or not) the two conceive a plan not only to get off scotch free, but to get some money in the process, demanding a ransom from the older brother. But problems only get worse for the two. When the ransom is stated, the two now have to dodge a sneaky detective fond of Petula, Dorothy's druggie boyfriend, a severed finger and a very scary older brother!

I found myself thoroughly entertained. Weisz is absolutely superb as Petula. Not quite the brightest crayon in the box, she adds a lot of comic relief. Her abilities are definitely NOT limited to mummy flicks.
Lynch is perfect as Dorothy. I had seen Waking Ned Devine, but had not heard much of Lynch sense, but she was great. She's believable in her acting and I thought no one could play Dorothy better.

The movie has feeling of "Thelma and Louis," minus the road trip. I found myself laughing through the movie, moved by Petula and Dorothy's self-struggles to stay with their boyfriends, and on the edge of my seat with a very thrilling and unpredictable plot. I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone who liked Pulp Fiction, or, of course, Thelma & Louis.

In an interview Rachel Weisz said that with this film you will either love it or hate it. I belong to the camp that loved it. The primary reason I went to see this film was Weisz herself, since she is one of my favorite actresses. I was pleasntly surprised to find myself laughing through so much of the movie.

The premise really isn't something new. It's like "Thelma & Louise" without the road trip, funnier, and I liked it better. Dorothy and Petula date mean, nasty men. It seems all men in this film are mean and nasty. One night, while tryin to escape her boyfriend Tony, Dorothy happens on Petula who is being strangled by her boyfriend Brian. Nice fellah, eh? She saves her by whacking Brian with a pipe. They decide to let him sleep it off in Dorothy's bath tub. Brian falls and dies. The girls have to go through and try and do something to get the blame away from them. They cannot let anyone know that they killed him, even if it was an accident. Dorothy happens on the idea of faking a kidnap and ransom plot. Along the way some more nasty men come into the picture.

This is a funny film and what makes it so is the performances given by Weisz and her co-star Susan Lynch. Both are perfect for their roles and their scenes together are great. But so are the other scenes. Dorothy is the level headed, smart one and Lynch can play that very well, balancing that and Dorothy's fear. The scene where Tony comes back and confronts them is fantastic. Weisz has shown that she is a fine comedic actress and you have to do a double take when you see her as a blonde. She's shown us that she has a very wide range.

I don't know that I could recommend this to many people. All I can say is that I found it to be very funny and would gladly see it again.

While this movie had a promising start, it sort of crumbled like a cookie by the middle. Billed as a black comedy/suspense thriller, Beautiful Creatures stars Rachel Weisz and Susan Lynch and Petula and Dorothy, respectively. At the outset we find both women are involved in abusive relationships with very despicable men. Through a chance meeting, Dorothy intervenes, with an usual choice of a weapon, while Petula's boyfriend, Brian, is throttling her, and he is knocked unconscious. Fearful of legal entanglements and repercussions, they drag him back to Dorothy's apartment and try to decide how to best proceed. Brian regains consciousness, and while still suffering from too much drink, he falls and hits his head, ending his own life. This sets up the rest of the movie, as the women have to now deal with a dead body.

Now Brian, who is well off, works for his brother Ronnie, who is even more well off, so the women concoct a scheme to make it appear as if Brian has been kidnapped, and extort a large sum of money from Ronnie, in hopes of using that money to make a better life far away. The scheme doesn't go as planned, as a crooked cop gets involved, along with Dorothy's boyfriend, to which they both develop plans of their own. Complications abound, as the women try to stay on top of things, but eventually just end up riding out forces beyond their control.

I thought the actor who played Ronnie was especially good, presenting a calm yet menacing character, someone you wouldn't want to upset. He presented a very controlled exterior, but underneath you knew he was a dangerous man capable of providing a great deal of pain to those who crossed him. His concern for his missing brother seemed genuine, but his motivation appeared more to punish those who would dare to mess with him or his family, and restore face to his family name. I missed if he was 'connected' somehow, like a mob or something, but it certainly had that feel. I would have liked to see him get more screen time, as he presented a very interesting character.

Both Weisz and Lynch played their parts well, appearing as sort of helpless women trapped in abusive relationships, who find the strength in each other, realizing that they don't have to be victims. Weisz looked a little off with her bleached hair, but when it was cut short, it looked much better. I still prefer her with dark hair, but she is still an amazingly attractive woman. Compared to Weisz, Lynch has a more understated beauty, a more earthy quality, but equally attractive.

As I said before, the pacing kind of fell off around the middle, and there were some holes in the plot, but it's a fun ride. As far as the ending, I was a little disappointed as I saw it coming. All the threads got tied up neatly, with no surprises. Not a lot of originality, but great photography, with the movie set and filmed in Glasgow, Scotland. I was happy to see a fresh, interesting venue, providing a little extra spice to a decent meal. Along with good photography, I thought the music used really helped create a proper mood for this movie. One thing I really enjoyed about the score was it wasn't intrusive, and fit the scenes very well.

The presentation is in wide screen, and is excellent, along with the audio. There are the basic extras consisting of a trailer, production notes, and bios. A solid movie, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend anyone go out of their way to see it, unless you've got a real thing for Rachel Weisz. (I admit, she was the main reason I bought this) And no, I didn't forget about the dog. Seems I won't be able to get out of this review without mention Pluto (that's the dog's name in the movie), so I will say, for a minor character providing a key element in a number of scenes, he did quite well. I would even go so far as to say his performance was 'finger lickin' good'. (If you see the movie, you'll know what I mean) Also, a number of reviews reference the movie Thelma and Louise in comparison to this movie, but I didn't, as I never saw it. There was so much attention and hype around that movie at the time it came out, I got turned off to it. Maybe someday....

Set in Glassgow, Scotland, "Beautiful Creatures" may be referred to, like, as "Thelma and Louise" in UK. Or "Lock, Stock..." in female version. Or something like that. The fact is, the film has an uneven quality that makes every viewer confused after seeing it.

Whatever the various reaction might be, the greatest assets of the film are the two leading ladies, who deserve nomination for BAFTA. Susan Lynch playes Dorothy, who, on the way from running away from her violent boyfriend, happens to save Petula from being beaten by her (Petula's) boyfriend on the road. As one guy drops dead (and refuses to go away), they develop their friendship, trying to fend off their mutual enemy, using some outrageous plan of fake kidnapping.

As this short plot summery shows, the two females (beautiful creatures) are set against a bunch of nasty males, most of whom come after Petula and Dorothy to exploit them for money or whatever you may guess. This is the point where the audiences' opinions devide, as some may take it as typical expression of hatred against women in general, and some may call it a good example of dark humor. In whichever way you may feel, I don't know, but I was certainly very uncomfortable watching some of the scenes in which grim violence is depicted on the screen, especially when the other scenes are devoted to humorous descriptions of the two likable female characters played by Ms. Lynch and Ms. Weisz with aptly expressed serio-comic humor. This uneven tone of the film, I think, cause many viewers to complain with some justification, and sorry, I was one of them.

The fans of the two leading ladies, however, will find very good performance from the both players, and they may feel a little relieved after watching Rechel Weisz (with blonde hair) caring a pinkish dog, or her conversation with Susan Lynch over cell phone about their ad-lib planning of kidnapping. Surely the female parts should deserve good reviews, and if you love (like me) Ms. Weisz's comic talent in "The Mummy" franchize, you will again fall in love with her. Watch them. Watch those lovely creatures, because they are really beautiful, and sometimes funny, too.

There is a myth in Hollywood that strong women characters have to be strong women (i.e. Erin Brockovich). What I liked about the film "Beautiful Creatures" is that the lead female characters, Petula and Dorothy, are not strong women initially. They have allowed themselves to be dominated by physically, mentally and sexually abusive men. Neither seem to be capable of helping themselves out of these relationships. But, ironically, they each have the ability to help the other. And in helping eachother, they find the strength that had been beaten out of them. Even though the film addresses a serious subject, I found it to be very funny without making light of the domestic abuse issue. Susan Lynch is terrific as Dorothy, the fed-up heroine who comes to the aid of a stranger and finds herself facing murder charges. And "Mummy" fans will hardly recognize Rachel Weisz from her most familiar role as "Evie." Weisz is proving herself to be one of the most versatile actors making films today. There is an uninhibited quality about her performances that make every character she takes on totally believable. I definitely recommend this film for anyone who enjoys gritty humor and watching the underdogs win.

Two young women, one exceptionally beautiful, are involved with highly abusive men. They seem unable to extract themselves from these indiviual violent relationships until events pull them apart. In spite of the violence, this is actually a darkly humorous movie, laugh out loud, and well worth seeing. There are no decent men in this picture, all are twisted or corrupt and violent. That is too bad. A sense of balance here would have been better.The acting is very good and the background of Glasgow is a pleasant change. There is a Thelma and Louise quality to it without the attributes of Brad Pitt. That said, this is the better film.

This movie is about two women who are caught in bad relationships until certain events occure to free them of their domestic shackles. These two ladies might be abused by their men but are in no way "Profesional Victims' as so many women in Hollywood movies are portrayed.Ms. Weisz is beautiful as always and has a very sexy English accent and a great flair for comedy which is why I give this movie 5 stars.

When I watched this movie I fell in love with it. Rachel Weisz is suberp as Petula and Susan Lynch is great as Dorothy. It all begins when Petula and her boyfriend Brian are fighting, and Brian starts strangling Petula, and Dorothy comes to her rescue and kills Brian by hitting him in the head with a lead pipe.
The action continues from there, its almost Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meet Thelma and Lousie. Awesome flick!!!!!

First, don't read any reviews where they tell you what the movie is about. Surprise yourself because it's a cake filling full of comedy-of-errors with a frosting of self-correcting mishaps that result in a tasty snack of everyone gets what they deserve - Oh! Joy Joy (Ren & Stimpy).
Second, quite original script for this done before plot. Great performances by all. Interesting filming angles and sets, so kudos to filming crew and director. Third, nice blend of an appropriate seven oldies and newbies music; not overwhelming - just right.

GREAT MOVIE. GIRLS AND THEIR PINK GERMAN SHEPHERD TAKE ON THE BAD GUYS. LONG A FAVORITE OF MINE I WAS HAPPY TO FIND IT AVAILABLE AND AT A LOW PRICE. DVD WAS NEW IN PACKAGE AS DESCRIBED. SHIPPING WAS FAST. AN EXCELLENT TRANSACTION.