~ Warning! Minor Spoilers! Movie Review: “Beautiful Disaster” (2023) ~

REVIEW

By now, I know one of my all-time favorite genres is YA (or NA) enemies-to-lovers, so I decided to check out “Beautiful Disaster.” I have never read books but have had no interest since watching the movie. A quick Wikipedia search tells me that the author might have some beliefs I disagree with and wouldn’t want to support.

I grew up watching “Suite Life” on Disney Channel, so I was excited to see Dylan Sprouse. In “Beautiful Disaster,” he plays Travis, who is instantly attracted to Abby after seeing her in the audience as he partakes in an underground fighting competition. New to Sacramento, Abby tries escaping her home life in Vegas by pretending to be a normal college student. Mick, Abby’s father, is addicted to gambling and trained his daughter at a young age to be a fantastic card player who constantly needs to bail him out.

With these types of shows and movies, my expectations are rarely high. I solely want entertainment, but “Beautiful Disaster” wasn’t good. The chemistry was lacking. Plus, neither of the main characters looked like their role. Dylan doesn’t give me tough underground fighter, and Virginia Gardner doesn’t give me nice girl on the run.

In addition, the show slightly grossed me out with how often characters’ faces would get dirtied, but they weren’t rushing to clean it. Blood from a complete stranger gets on Abby’s face, which is literal contamination, and she coolly goes back to her place with blood stains and waits to shower. Later, she falls into a puddle of mud, and it gets all over her, including her face, and she doesn’t care. It makes no sense to me. I know that this may seem minute to everyone, but it bothers the neat freak in me so much. Also, it’s not always Abby; in one scene, Abby throws up on Travis’s face directly after a kiss. I found that unnecessary, but the hard-on scene is the most unnecessary. On the topic of sexual scenes, I don’t understand why the movie suddenly decided to take a funny turn and make the sex scene accident-prone and stupid. I did not find it hilarious or sexy. The movie swung and missed its mark terribly.       

Also, the movie just had me questioning everything. Abby is in college, so why couldn’t she gamble at an 18+ casino? Also, why doesn’t she have a bank account? Many issues were nonsensical, too nonsensical for me to suspense my disbelief because there was such an easy fix.

I did enjoy the bromance between Travis and his roommate. I also like the scene where we meet Travis’s family. However, for a romance, the main couple lacked chemistry, and Travis fell in love with Abby way too fast; there was not enough buildup. Moreover, Abby’s character and acting were boring, but I appreciated how quickly her backstory was explained, and it wasn’t some big looming secret waiting to be revealed later.    

By the way, this movie was working hard to promote Netflix. It name-drops “The Kissing Booth” and has “After” playing on the TV in the background.

In the end, they quickly married in Vegas, which means there’s no need for a sequel, which works for me. However, an online search tells me there’s a sequel titled “Beautiful Wedding,” which, according to the synopsis, is about them waking up married in Vegas. It sounds super dumb. If I’m bored enough, I will play it in the background. As for my rating for “Beautiful Disaster,” I’ll be nice and give it a 2.95/5.