wes-connors After escaping an attack from her abusive man, attractive Susan Lynch (as Dorothy) decides to leave him. While waiting on a bus to London from Glasgow, Ms. Lynch witnesses another abusive man. He is attacking beautiful blonde Rachel Weisz (as Petula). Lynch takes a long metal bat and swings at the attacker. It's a solid hit and Ms. Weisz' abuser is knocked out of the park. The women drag him home and put him in the bathtub, with comfortable quilt. While not funny, the bathtub scene does suggest "Beautiful Creatures" is a comedy. Lynch and Weisz get high and bond. Lynch is attracted to Weisz' platinum blonde locks and plays hairdresser...The women team-up and agree about how to dispose of one lover. The other, businessman Iain Glen (as Tony), causes problems. He's a real mean junkie who plays an awful trick on the dog Lynch's dog "Pluto". In return, Pluto plays a magic trick with Mr. Glen's ring finger...Later, Weisz gets to take a swing at Lynch's husband; here and there, director Bill Eagles provides a lot of synchronicity. He and editor Jon Gregory try not bore the viewer. Best performance honors go to lecherous police detective Alex Norton (as George Hepburn), with an honorable mention to Maurice Roeves. Sexiest moment is when Weisz removes her stockings to relax during some violence. She doesn't need nudity to be sexy. The real heroes and/or heroines are not the two leading women, strangely. They are the dog Pluto and, possibly, the guy at the window (Robin Laing) with the dirty magazines. It should have been the women.**** Beautiful Creatures (8/23/00) Bill Eagles ~ Rachel Weisz, Susan Lynch, Alex Norton, Iain Glen

MBunge Beautiful Creatures is one of those British crime dramas. You know the ones I'm talking about. Snatch, Layer Cake, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, etc.. Movies that sill hold to the pretense that criminals are smart and sexy and fun to be around. I'm not entirely sure why British crime movies can still get away with that stuff, while American crime dramas seem to have become overwhelmed by the reality that almost all criminals are stupid, unattractive and massively screwed up. Maybe it's the accents. Anyway, Beautiful Creatures tells the story of Petula (Rachel Weisz) and Dorothy (Susan Lynch), two women brought together by fate who try to navigate their way through murder, lies, betrayal and happenstance. The story starts with Dorothy getting her apartment trashed by her abusive boyfriend. She takes her dog Pluto out to grab a bus and Pluto runs away. Dorothy follows to find Petula getting beaten by her boyfriend. Dorothy clunks him in the head with a 15 foot long metal pipe and knocks him out. They take him back to Dorothy's apartment because Petula won't leave him in the street. But back in the apartment, the guy ends up dying. It turns out, he was the little brother of Petula's boss, one of those tough as nails, criminal kingpins that populate British crime dramas. He owns a large business but everyone knows he's really a vicious killer and even the cops do him favors. Petula and Dorothy first try to dump the body and when that doesn't work out, they concoct a kidnapping scam to try and get enough money to get away from evil big brother. That brings in a detective inspector who wants a cut of the action and the return of Dorothy's abusive boyfriend, leading to one of those everybody-rushes-to-the-same-place-and-almost-everybody-ends-up-dead sort of endings. Except for a strange, 5 minute stretch when it morphs into a stalker movie, Beautiful Creatures is a fine movie that sets itself above other British crime dramas in two ways. 1. No one's really that smart. These films usually involve people crafting brilliant, intricate plans that go wrong in complicated ways. This film involves people coming up with desperate plans by the seat of their pants that go wrong because they weren't that well thought out to begin with. 2. It lets its two female leads be normal woman. Female protagonists in crime dramas either start out or evolve into cunning, hard assed rogues who are just as tough and deceitful as any man, usually more so. But Weiz and Lynch are allowed to play characters who are physically weaker than men, who aren't as cruel and violent as the cops or the crooks around them. These are two women in horrible situations, who come together to help each other out and succeed as much by luck as anything else. One of the other notable things about Beautiful Creatures is that it is probably the film where Rachel Weisz is the most attractive and sexy she's ever been and ever will be in a movie. She's also a platinum blonde, if that trips your trigger. Though it's not as good a film, Beautiful Creatures could also be ranked alongside The Silence of the Lambs as one of the best, little-f feminist crime dramas that doesn't fall into the big-F Feminist trap of letting its take on sexual and gender politics overpower the story and turn it into "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" propaganda.

cstickelman My wife and I just got done watching this, quirky and funny movie, and loved it! I was very glad we stumbled upon it. We had guessed how it was going to end, but had no idea how the story was going to get there. Great late-night viewing! It felt like something you'd see out of Canada... just of-beat enough to keep you watching. This is not the kind of movie that would win a bunch of awards, but many of the best films aren't for the masses. I'd expect it to appeal to people with a off-beat sense of humor. If you're the type of person who counts every minute of your life as precious, then maybe you won't want to spend the time watching it. However, if you're into taking chances, then give this one a try!

Lee Bartholomew (spoilers)The plot is fairly solid, but it's messy. Horribly messy. I really can't say vague. It's fairly obvious that the girls win over the boys. But getting there seems a bit too confusing for many to handle. I merely wanted to watch this because of Rachel Weisz. You get to see her legs up close. (drool) but she's not nude here. You'll have to settle for her butt in Enemy at the Gates.This movie wasn't sure if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama. It aimed for being a comedy-drama, but pretty much missed. The trailer jolts us around thinking it's a comedy. It was nice seeing the guy from Last of the Mohicans. In the end, it's just not one of Rachel's best movies. And perhaps down near the bottom. About A Boy is a bit better in her dept than this. Although I did find her blond hair a bit interesting in this movie.5/10Quality: 4/10 Entertainment: 6/10 Replayable: 6/10