Reel Review
Bedazzled (2000)
In the beginning 1967, to be exact there was Bedazzled
and it was good. Written by legendary Brit wit Peter
Cook and co-starring Cook and comedy partner Dudley
Moore, this comic tale of wish fulfillment proved that the devil is,
indeed, in the details when shy, short-order cook Stanley Moon's (Moore) world
collides with Satan incarnate George Spigott (Cook). Thirty-three years later,
the comic genius known as Harold
Ramis (Groundhog
Day, Analyze
This) saw fit to remake Bedazzled in his own American image.
Unfortunately, Ramis' sense of humor, timing, and purpose called a strike for
the duration of the production, because Ramis' Bedazzled bothers and
bewilders, but never bewitches. One can well imagine the late, great Cook
fairly corkscrewing in his grave at the crime committed against his poor,
innocent original screenplay.
That actor who has built a career out of goofy, naοve charm combined with comely looks, Brendan Fraser, plays Elliot, a tech support geek whose social skills are so lacking that he's become the company leper. When the Princess of Darkness (Elizabeth Hurley) overhears Elliot praying to God for co-worker Alison (Mansfield Park's Frances O'Connor) to notice him, she senses a soul ripe for the taking and pounces. The beautiful Beelzebub will grant Elliot seven wishes in return for his eternal damnation. Since his life is already a living hell, he doesn't have much to lose in selling his soul or so he thinks. With his wishes, Elliot sets out to win Alison, but the luscious Lucifer is devilishly clever at finding the loopholes in Elliot's dreams.
It's hard to understand exactly how a script by Ramis, Larry Gelbart (Tootsie, 1966's The Wrong Box, co-starring, ironically, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore), and Peter Tolan (What Planet Are You From?, Analyze This, The Larry Sanders Show) could go so wrong, particularly given the blueprint Cook provided them. Bedazzled has its rare funny moments (many directly lifted from Cook's original screenplay), but the film is sabotaged by an insulin shock-inducing ending see the devil isn't so bad, after all. Awww and the lameness of the wish sequences. There are so few stereotypes left to comfortably exploit yet Ramis and his partners manage to find them: When Elliot wants to be rich and powerful, he becomes a Latin American drug lord (what a barrel of fun). When he desires to be a sports hero, suddenly he's an elongated, dumb-as-a-post basketball star with one obvious shortcoming (were Beavis and Butthead script doctors on this?). When he yearns to be witty and sophisticated, Satan makes him gay (gotta love those musicals).
Curiously, one of the wish sequences prominently featured in Bedazzled's advertising did not make the final cut. Could the rock star scenes really have been that bad? Ramis saw fit to include Elliot's wish that he become president of the United States only to be thrust back into the 19th century as Abraham Lincoln about to be shot at Ford's Theater. Lots of laughs there why not make him Kennedy in Dallas?
There is a good movie here dying to get out, but it's not the film that Ramis made. He completely cops out in the end, unable to follow Bedazzled's sacrilegious underpinnings all the way through, lest someone get offended resulting in a gooey mess. Worse is the way he misuses his stars. By making the devil a woman, Ramis changed everything. The original Bedazzled was a buddy picture about the unlikely friendship that develops between Stanley and George. In this version, you have Hurley and Fraser, two of the most attractive people working in film. There's a palpable chemistry between them in their scenes together. On the other hand, Elliot's love interest, the waifish, wan O'Connor barely registers on the screen next to the vibrant Hurley. Hello? Was anybody even home when this latest edition of Bedazzled was written?
Ramis' Bedazzled may be preferable to sitting home alone on a Friday night continually hitting yourself over the head with a hammer but not by much. Rent Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Rent George of the Jungle. Rent the original Bedazzled. But send this remake to hell.
PAM GRADY
| DVD
Review DVD Review   Those
Puritan preachers who warned their flocks about the horrible fate
awaiting sinners in the netherworld had it all wrong. Instead of
railing about fire and brimstone, they should have cautioned against Elizabeth
Hurley. God knows, a curvy sex-kitten devil is a lot more
dangerous than the idea of spending eternity in a place where the
thermostat's set a little high.
Devil With a Red Dress On In Bedazzled, she struts it for the benefit of pathetic dweeb Elliot Richards (an energetic, endearing Brendan Fraser). Longing for Allison (Mansfield Park's Frances O'Connor), the untouchable girl of his dreams, Elliot is so lonely and desperate that when the Devil offers him a way to get her seven fabulous wishes in exchange for (of course) his soul he doesn't need much persuading to sign on the dotted line. What follows is a series of vignettes in which Elliot gets to live out his fantasies; well, his fantasies with a devilish twist, that is. Fraser Is a Comedy Inferno He and Hurley make a good on-screen pair; when Elliot catches the Princess of Darkness blithely causing traffic accidents and switching hospital patients' pills with candy, Fraser plays him with the perfect mix of horror and grudging admiration it's fun to be bad sometimes. It's just too bad that the movie doesn't have more of this subtle interplay instead of overdone scenes with the Devil faking tears and trying to convince Elliot that she really wants to be his friend. Hurley is most convincing when she's doing the temptress thing, not the demon-with-a-heart-of-gold routine. Commentaries Lead DVD Features The disc's other features aren't half-bad either. "The Making of Bedazzled," a 14-minute behind-the-scenes featurette made for HBO, is actually better than average it covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time and has a cute narrative gimmick with Hurley interrupting and sending it off in new directions. A second featurette, "Bedazzled Designs with Deena Appel," focuses on the costumes and includes some of the same interview clips with Ramis and Hurley that are featured in the making-of special. The disc also has the requisite theatrical trailer and TV spots; THX Optimode tests to help you maximize audio and visual performance; an expanded version of Jones and Toby Huss bantering during the basketball-themed wish; plus a still gallery with sketches, photos, and concept art of DV8 (the Devil's nightclub), the Devil's office, and the other sets. Last, but not least, are two brief scoring-session clips, which show composer David Newman leading his orchestra as they play the music for the scene in which Elliot signs the Devil's contract (the scene itself plays in a small picture-within-picture). The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks great, all the better to ogle Hurley's skimpy outfits and curves. Sound options, all of which are crisp and clear, include English 5.1 surround, English and French Dolby surround, Spanish subtitles, and English captions. In the end, Bedazzled certainly could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse which is almost how you could describe the way the Devil ends up treating Elliot. Maybe if Satan hadn't had a soft side, the movie would have been stronger. Guess we'll have to wait until the next sucker comes along to find out. BETSY
BOZDECH |
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