Bedazzled (2000)

This Harold Ramis movie is a remake of a 60's cult movie which I have never actually seen. It's based on the Faust legend where we have a terminally annoying man who is in love with a girl who works in the same office as him but who barely knows he exists. After a humiliating encounter with her he inadvertently casts up the devil who grants him seven wishes in his quest to win the girl over. The set-up in this one results in a film with a very episodic structure. With the central character wishing to be different in various ways which leads him to be reincarnated as a South American drug lord, a man intensely in touch with his sensitive side, a colossal basketball player, a respected writer, and the President of the USA. The fun comes from the fact that the devil has sneaked in a catch to every new persona and this inevitably leads to disasters for the central character and some hilarity for us. And that's the thing, it's actually a genuinely laugh out loud funny movie on several occasions, some standout moments being the over-sensitive man unable to avoid crying at a sunset or the half-witted giant basketball player who can't seem to string a sentence together without saying 'pretty good' while sweat literally pours from his head. Brendan Fraser is key to the comedy here. He puts in a genuinely good comic turn in a role that allows him to play a variety of characters with the help of some amusing make-up.

So far so good. But I thought I would devote the whole final paragraph to the actual best thing about Bedazzled and that can be described in two words - Elizabeth Hurley. Honest to goodness, her performance as the devil is so incredibly seductive its bordering on being criminal. This astronomically gorgeous woman pops up throughout the course of the movie in an array of mind-bogglingly provocative costumes (proving conclusively that it isn't just gay men who can appreciate excessive costume changes). Hurley puts in an extremely sexy performance without stripping off at all which was quite an achievement all things considered. I really like girls with English accents and Hurley's posh voice was simply the icing on this particular cake for yours truly. She isn't a gifted actress but she does all right with comedy roles and this one, needless to say, suits her down to a tee in every conceivable way. Despite its other good qualities, if you made the decision to watch this film for the sole reason of watching our Liz in full throttle, I would understand.

Fmovies: I wasn't expecting too much when I rented this movie. In fact, I thought I'd probably end up turning it off after a half hour, as it looked in the trailer like it would be one of those silly, go for the gag-laughs Hollywood pieces of junk. What a surprise! This was an excellent, entertaining film that I thoroughly enjoyed. It's basically a love story, but far from a "chick flick"(yeah, I'm a guy), it's a clever one that is well written, has a number of different subplots that are interesting to see played out, and deftly mixes comic overtones with a touching character study. I wasn't a particular fan of Brendan Fraser till now, but I was blown away by the way he perfectly captured the number of different personalities portrayed in the movie. Even the technical aspects of the movie are impressive: in one scenario the special effects wizards make Fraser into a 7'6'' pro basketball player that is totally convincing.

Ever since GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE I've been convinced that BRENDAN FRASER is one of the brightest new talents to come along in ages. He gets a chance to show how clever he is at concealing his real self in BEDAZZLED, starting as a nerdy office worker and going through a series of changes in an effort to make a pact with The Devil (Elizabeth Hurley). None of his wishes are successful because each one has a hitch devised by the cunning Hurley to backfire.

I never saw the original with Dudley Moore, but here I can see that the script stands in the way of delivering a solid comedy despite Brendan's flair for this sort of thing. He reaches the peak of his comic talent with his impersonation of a Latin millionaire, guaranteed to draw laughs.

But much of the story is too episodic for the results to be anything more than reasonably satisfying. Hurley goes about her role with a sexy seductiveness that is almost as overwhelming for the viewer as it is for Fraser's character.

Summing up: Fraser's fans will enjoy his multi-faceted romp.

Bedazzled fmovies. The makers of Bedazzled were not out to make a classic comedy,they were simply trying to make us laugh.Their mission was a successful one.Bedazzled is full of laughs and great character acting by Brendan Fraser and Frances O'Connor.After many forgettable roles in several forgettable films,Brendan Fraser has really graduated into one of cinemas' big time players in just the last couple of years.As I said,Bedazzled will probably not go down as a comedy classic,it's just your basic comedy filled with laughs from start to finish,and that's good enough for me.It would be a worthy addition to the comedy section of anyone's home library.Thumbs up!

Someone in Movie Heaven dropped a feather down on Ramis, the director of such good time romps as Ghostbusters and Stripes. His remake of this 1967 classic rides on the slumped shoulders of Elliot (Brendan Fraser at his best), a pathetically geeky loner who is so socially unskilled that he makes our skin crawl a little. When we first meet him, Elliot is trying to glom onto his co-workers' after-hours social scene by using such tried-and-true means as showing photos of his speakers (from all sides), a truly awful blue-eyed soul brother act, and plain old stalking.

Even though he is the guy you run from when he lurches towards you in the hall - probably knocking over the water cooler at the same time - Elliot really does want to be different. One reason for this is his fervent secret crush on Alison (Frances O'Connor), a beautiful systems analyst who doesn't see him at all. Elliot is so smitten by her that he doesn't even realize until too late that she has given him a polite brush off at the local pub, where he is busy trying to impress his buddies.

Now comes a simple but nifty transitional shot: a cue ball skips off a pool table and bounces down a flight of stairs and the camera follows as it makes a steady, inevitable trip across the crowded floor, pairs of feet yielding right of way as it goes on to finally hit Elliot's feet where he sits on a stool in silent yearning. He picks up the ball and looks across the room, up the flight of stairs to where destiny, in the form of Elizabeth Hurley in a slinky red dress, is beckoning him.

Ms. Hurley is actually the Devil, although Elliot doesn't know it yet, and she will shortly be putting him through a series of transformative experiences. In the meantime, though, he isn't buying her story, even though she presents him with a card that reads, "The Devil". Contrasted with the heavy-handedness of recent 'Sign O'the Beast R' Us' flicks such as Devil's Advocate, this sequence is done with sly understatement and depends simply on giving Hurley a chance to play the vamp she was born to be.

We begin to like Elliot here because, even though he is presented with a slew of vanity-pleasing enticements, it isn't until she serves up a batch of his grandmother's cookies that he believes the Devil is really who she claims to be. And when he is presented with the standard seven-wishes-for-your-soul contract, it isn't until he sees a giant video screen of Alison calling to him that he makes the deal.

Although the real treats - the deliriously goofy incarnations of teeth, hair and clothing that Elliot chooses for his ideal self in his endless quest for happiness, success, and Alison's hand - are yet to come, I am just pointing out how masterfully Ramis has set the table. By the time he is plunged into his voyage of self-improvement, we already know a great deal about Elliot and have begun to move into his corner.

We've also begun to feel a certain sympathy for the Devil, thanks mainly to the fine work of Ms. Hurley, with her elegant voice and her clear zest for the role. Although she is certainly not the scariest Lucifer yet to appear on screen, she is one of the most persistently sales-oriented and could hang with the toughest of David Mamet's phone scammers. By turns sultry, pitiful, and practical ("Have you ever even seen your soul? Do you even know what it does? It's really just like your appendix - you'll never miss it."), she is always the ultimate Clos

"Bedazzled" tells of a tech support geek (need I say more?) who sells his soul to the devil (Hurley) for seven wishes which he attempts to use to get close to a girl at work (O'Connor). The flick is a situational comedy which takes the audience on a fun ride as Fraser's wishes turn him into one exaggerated comic-book-type caricature after another. A cute flick sans slapstick, pratfalls, and jokes, "Bedazzled" offers lots of outrageous situations, some sentimental moments, and a whiff of philosophy. A fun watch with a cute ending, lots of eye candy for the guys, and Fraser doing what he does best playing a big, naive, smiling guy.