Bedazzled

Even though Elizabeth Hurley plays The Devil she is a goddess.

Brendan Fraser is certainly adequate to the job of playing Elliot Richards but Ms. Hurley steals the film.

She is perfectly cast as the `Princess of Darkness' and seems to truly enjoy exposing her darker side.

Brendan Fraser turns in a real acting tour d'force playing eight different characters. Possibly because of all the widely divergent characters he is playing he is not truly great in any of them – though he is hysterically funny – due primarily to the superb script by Larry Gelbart (of television's M*A*S*H fame), Harold Ramis (who also directed) and Peter Tolan from the original screen play by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

The Devil's demons (which appear in nearly every scene in one form or another) are great supporting roles played by Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein and Toby Huss. They provide just the right touch of devilish humour, charm and wit. Another bit of casting genius and writing is Gabriel Casseus as Elliot's cellmate who expounds on the soul and is later seen playing chess with The Devil (who cheats, of course).

In fact all of the supporting characters were perfectly cast and brilliantly executed.

The script was so tight and well written that it was almost actor-proof. It was even able to carry a moral message without slamming the audience in the head with it.

To paraphrase an idea from the film ‘you get out of life [and this film] what you put into it.

This was an all-around good film with good direction, good jokes, good acting, excellent make-up (especially on Brendan Fraser by Ben Nye, Jr.) and a good yet unobtrusive score. I recommend it highly.