| BEDAZZLED UK Release Date: 10/11/00 Certificate: 12 Official Website Director: Harold Ramis Producers: Trevor Albert & Harold Ramis Screenplay: Harold Ramis, Peter Tolan & Larry Gelbart (from the screenplay by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore). |
| Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley star in this re-make of the 1967 movie of the same name. In Medieval times the theme of Good versus Evil was played out in morality plays. The most famous of these is probably Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, where the title character makes a deal with the Devil, which goes wrong, and he loses his soul for his trouble and is dragged into Hell. So in some ways 2000's Bedazzled is remake of that too. Whereas Faustus wanted magical powers so that he could play tricks on the Pope, Elliot Richards (Fraser) just wants to get a girl he works with (Frances O'Conner). Elliot is somewhat lacking in social skills, and is the sort of person that everyone avoids talking to, but who is oblivious and tries to get involved anyway. He asks God to help him get closer to Alison, but the Devil gets there first, in the alluring form of Liz Hurley. |
 |
| Satan offers Elliot seven wishes, in return for his soul, which as she says, has never done anything for him, and is a bit like an appendix. Hurley is excellent in this movie. She oozes sex appeal and her obvious charms are displayed in the large number of outfits she gets through in the film. I was a little disappointed that the French maid's outfit that she I've seen in some of the promotional material doesn't seem make an appearance, but I did like the nurse, cheer-leader, traffic warden, and, well, she looked quite good in all of them actually. Enough to overcome the slight shortfall in acting that some perceive her as suffering. |
| Brendan Fraser turns in a fine comic performance too, the diverse personalities that his wishes create showcase an unsuspected range. The movie is at it's most amusing in these interludes, as they needs to be to compensate for the lack of Hurley. The Devil finds ingeneous loopholes in Elliot's wishes to make him suffer, yet keep coming back for more. Once these wishes are over, the movie a lot of it's impetuous. It becomes, like the Medieval morality plays, a conflict between faith in a higher power and virtu, the belief in one's own potential and ability. Whereas the Medieval version had to have the victim end up in Hell, in order to keep Church attendance |
| figures high, the Hollywood take has to have a happy ending, in order to get Americans in to see it. This is an entertaining movie, with Brendan Fraser putting in his best comic performance to date, and Elizabeth Hurley is as mesmorising as ever. 6/10 |
 |
| Buy the DVD: |
 |
 |