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238 reviews in total

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75 out of 88 people found the following review useful:
Fun movie, good comedy., 8 February 2003

Author: LebowskiT1000 from Escondido, California, USA

No, this isn't the best or funniest comedy in the world, but I certainly enjoyed it. There is a fair amount of really good comedy in the film to keep you entertained. ...And of course there's Elizabeth Hurley...need I say more?

The story is a fun one and quite the fantasy, but nonetheless, it's entertaining. While not being anything terribly profound, this film definitely has a point to make, be happy with yourself and only you can make things happen, don't rely on others for your happiness.

The acting in this film is very good. Brendan Fraser struts his acting talent in this film quite nicely, playing virtually 5 or 6 characters throughout the film. Brendan really is a talented actor and should get some notice for his role in this film. Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein, and Toby Huss also deserve a great deal of notice for their work in this film, all three of them play various types of characters in the film and do it quite nicely. Elizabeth Hurley and her ever-changing wardrobe should be reason enough for any guy to watch this film. She looks nothing short of fantastic in every scene. Frances O'Connor was a nice choice for the part of Alison / Nicole (also playing more than one role very nicely).

All in all, this is a fun, cute movie with some really good comedy. I would recommend this film to anyone that likes those types of film, or is just a fan of one of the actors or director Harold Ramis. I hope you enjoy the film, thanks for reading,

-Chris

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66 out of 75 people found the following review useful:
A comedy with warmth, wit, and style, 26 January 2006

Author: pachl from Illinois

I originally saw this movie because it stars Brendan Fraser, an actor who can't seem to make a bad movie, and often makes great movies, such as "Blast From the Past".

The big surprise was Elizabeth Hurley. As certain as Vivien Leigh was meant to play Scarlett O'Hara, no one could have done a better job playing The Devil...in this case a sly, brilliantly cunning, sexy devil who playfully torments Brendan by dooming each of his wishes with unintended, nasty surprises. She effortlessly leads him along like a puppy dog on a leash.

Besides her comedic wit, (and some clever writing) I would be remiss not to mention that Elizabeth Hurley looks perfect, absolutely perfect, in every scene. Her clipped, refined British accent is the aural equivalent of a film shot on Kodachrome.

Bedazzled exudes a positive, good-natured warmth, and is proof that comedy doesn't have to depend on silly sophomoric antics, pratfalls, or foul language.

ADDENDUM January 10, 2008. After two years, I have no idea if anyone has ever read this review. Even if you don't like it, please give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, just to let me know someone read it.

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41 out of 49 people found the following review useful:
How unusual - a comedy that's funny., 19 October 2000
Author: Shiva-11 from Vancouver, BC

Wealth. Power. Admiration. They all sound pretty enticing. Indeed many people spend their life in pursuit of these or similar goals and are willing to sacrifice anything and everything in the process. But what if there was an easy way to do it, say, selling your soul? You're not really using it anyways .As the saying goes, the day I decided to do it there'd probably be a glut on the market.

Elliot Richards is, for lack of a better word, a dork. Relegated to the most dreaded of worker hells - tech support - he is a social pariah. Mocked by his colleagues, he spends his time trying to be cool and is hopelessly in love with one of his co-workers who doesn't even know that he exists. While lamenting his lot in life he casually mentions that he would give anything to have his beloved Allison. Enter the Princess of Darkness, stage left.

Although the basics between this movie and the 1967 classic of the same name are similar, there are so many differences (styles of humor, characters, plot, etc) that comparisons are pointless. So I won't even try. Bedazzled offers something so few comedies do these days - laughs, and lots or them, without relying on endless juvenile scatological gags. I thoroughly enjoyed the physical transformations that Elliot, Allison, and his cohorts undergo (several of which are amazing) each time he makes a wish. The spins on the wishes are especially amusing: for example, when Elliot wishes for power and wealth, he fails to take consider the how, and wakes up as a cuckolded Colombian drug lord whose kingdom is quickly collapsing around him. Elliot soon discovers that when dealing with the devil - surprise, surprise - nothing is, as it seems.

I have liked Brendan Fraser since his role in "Encino Man". Since then, he has proven himself capable of doing both schtick ("The Mummy") and serious roles ("Gods and Monsters"). With this part he shows just how versatile he is: rather than one role, he takes on seven, and does so admirably (I particularly enjoyed sensitive guy - I was laughing so hard my side hurt). Elizabeth Hurley is deliciously wicked in a role that she was born to play (if reports about her are true.) and it appears that she enjoyed herself. Her spin on the ultimate temptress is hilarious and personally, I'll take leather-clad vixens over slimy snakes any day. Francis O'Connor, brings the same verve and versatility to Allison that she displayed in "Mansfield Park", although here she is less subdued. The supporting cast provides the finishing touch rounding out the film nicely.

Although it didn't dazzle me, I was greatly amused.

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37 out of 47 people found the following review useful:
'George Of The Jungle' Meets Satan, 28 January 2007

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

Here's a fun film with a number of good laughs. It is stupid? Yeah, in parts. Is the theology sound? Hardly, but there was more truth than fiction uttered in this film, believe it or not. Is the Devil made to look attractive? Well, yeah, I'd say Elizabeth Hurley is pretty attractive!

The beginning is the best part of the film, and the end - with a dumb New Age message - is the worst. Along the way, the dumb Brendan Fraser's "Elliott Richards" learns some valuable lessons in his battle with the Devil. For selling his soul, so to speak, he gets seven wishes and we witness how he handles, or mishandles, these wishes. Much of it is pretty funny. Fraser is not a bad. He can play these goofy roles (i.e. "George Of The Jungle" and he can get serious and be effective, too, as in "The Quiet American.")

Overall, it's good lightweight entertainment. Don't expect much, and you'll be pleasantly surprised. At least, that's the way I found it.

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23 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
Not Like The Original, But Pleasant Enough, 20 October 2000
Author: G-Man-25 from Iowa City, IA

The 1967 original, starring Dudley Moor and Peter Cook and directed by Stanley Donen was a droll dark comedy that bombed when it was first released to theatres but has developed a very strong cult following over the years. This 2000 version, directed by Harold Ramis is not so much a remake as a latter-day re-imagining of the story. Aside from the basic premise, the two films share little else in common. This new version is a wacky, fast-paced farce that makes up in some giddily amusing moments what it lacks in true wickedness.

Brendan Fraser is perfectly cast as the hapless computer tech who makes a deal with Satan; granted seven wishes in exchange for eventual possession of his soul, we witness each wish he makes as his life becomes a series of colorful and very funny misadventures. Some first-rate make-up and special effects transform Fraser and his world every time he changes wishes. Elizabeth Hurley is extremely fetching and quite likable as the embodiment of Satan, although I wish she'd showed a bit more evilness than glee in her characterization.

All in all, a very entertaining movie that, of course, leaves the door open for a sequel. Bring it on!

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20 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Basic comedy,great character acting, 13 October 2001

Author: SmileysWorld from United States

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!

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16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Hurley and O'Connor in the same movie? There must be a God!, 17 May 2001

Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA

"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.

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19 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
Episodic, semi-successful comedy with Fraser at comic best..., 24 February 2004
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

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.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Loopy humor, down-to-earth wisdom, 7 June 2001

Author: (wamba1@mindspring.com) from Atlanta, Georgia, USA

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 Closer. Yet it's also never really in doubt that those with a glimmer of goodness can slip the bonds of her contract with no hard feelings on her part.

Fraser's Elliot, who is almost always the dupe, is hilariously baffled by the persona the Devil has given him. Plagued in each adventure by the same guys who torment him at the office, he can never figure out what has gone wrong with his wish until it is too late. It's delightful to see this fine actor strutting the comic range he is capable of playing in all of his character's various selves, as well as the simplicity with which he returns to being the same old Elliot, wiser, at the end.

Fine supporting work by Orlando Wilson, Paul Adelstein, and Toby Huss as Elliot's co-workers and karmic cast members. Great script by Ramis, Larry Gelbart of M.A.S.H. and Oh, God, and Peter Tolan (Analyze This, The Larry Sanders Show).

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Looks like a loser, but definitely a winner!, 4 March 2001

Author: cine-11 from Ogdensburg, NY, USA

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.

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