Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Bedazzled 2000 Movie Review w/ Spoilers




From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.

Today I'll be reviewing the movie Bedazzled released in 2000.

Starring:
Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, and Frances O'Connor

Directed by:
Harold Ramis

Genre:
Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

Rating:
Rated PG-13 for sex-related humor, language and some drug content

Budget:
$48,000,000 (estimated)

IMDb Rating is currently:
6.0


The Synopsis is:
Elliot Richards is a computer technician customer service rep at a company by the name of Synedyne.  He is secretly in love with Allison Garner who works at the company.  He has flubbed every chance he gets to make a good impression on her and hopes that a deal with the devil can get him his girl.


Story:
This is a remake of the excellent 1967 film with the same title.  The story is a Faustian tale wherein, the devil approaches the protagonist with 7 wishes for his soul in order to get the girl of his dreams. What a great story concept.

Harold Ramis commented in a Charlie Rose interview in the year 2000 that he wanted to create a departure from the original as much as possible so it could stand on its own and for many people who never saw the first movie, it does.

But also too there were not many of the original team to consult with.  Peter Cook passed away and Dudley Moore was rather sick at the time.

Harold said that one of the biggest differences that he wanted was to show that not just the environment changed, but the protagonist changes, every time he made a wish.  And you can really see that with all of the emotional and physical character transformations which gave the film a fun twist.

There was some homage to the original 1967 film.  The Devil's dogs in the beach scene are named Dudley and Peter, a reference to the writers and stars of the original Bedazzled (1967), Dudley Moore and Peter Cook.

The glasses worn by the devil when she and Elliott are on the bus are similar to those worn by the devil in the original.

The two devils dribble off lists of alternative names that they answer to.

And the devil gives Elliot a business card to prove that she is in fact the Devil as in the original film.


The devil also makes the protagonist pay for their first wish.

Both devils run a nightclub and files away the contract in a oversize filing cabinet.


Pacing:
At an hour and 33 minutes, it’s is pretty good.


Challenge:
The challenge begins with Elliot's life, not being liked by his co-workers and not being able to get the attention of the girl he likes.

So the biggest challenge, is the protagonist.  In order to fix it all, the devil offers a solution.  7 wishes, for his soul.

Many people who saw the original were not happy with the gender swap of the devil, however, I thought it was appropriate because Elliot, needs a little extra push to be tempted to give up his soul.  The devil is an illusion of temptation which has chosen the physical presence of temptation for men in the form of a gorgeous witty woman.

Elliot deprived of female contact, so the devil uses illusions of sexual imagery as a tool, by dressing up in very obvious sexually charged male fantasy costumes.  This is the temptation of Elliot’s soul.  And this is a presentation, Elliot cannot refuse.

In addition the devil shows Elliot the relationship he desires with an illusion and even takes him to Allison's room and giving him a chance to find out what she wants in a man.  This is all a part of the temptation, to keep him in the wishing game because Elliot must use up all of his wishes in order to lose his soul.

She also gives him very clever comebacks when ever he argues against the idea of continuing further.

And when times are tough, and Elliot is resisting, she’ll even resort to fake tears if she has to.

The devil’s devious intentions are prevalent when Elliot returns to her nightclub only to see that the club goers are lost souls reveling in the illusion of the life they have always wanted.

The devil’s goal is cut and dry, she just wants another soul and temptation is way she can get it.  I noticed that red apples appear several times in the film representing the temptation of the Garden of Eden symbolizing Elliot's temptation into doing something that could cost him his soul as he takes the shortcut to getting his version of Eve.

I just love this character and I love the idea that we get an nice juicy strong female villain, not afraid to be sexy, not afraid to be fun.


Empathy:
My empathy was nearly there, but I feel as if Elliot is not relatable in this film. 

He’s friendless, depressed, and socially awkward.  It’s okay to have these attributes, but Elliot is a caricature.    What makes him thoroughly unlikable is the fact that he is very pushy and unmindful of how offensive he is to others, to the point of being a jerk.

Because, he’s not a likable character, it’s kinda fun seeing him get messed up wishes.  Weirdly enough, you actually anticipate the wishes going bad, because if he was too likable I suppose it wouldn’t be as funny. 

You do want him to wise up a bit and by the end of the film he does become more grounded and more likable as the tone of the film also turns serious as well.

Elliott has had a rough time with his wishes and he realizes the moral of this life test, is that he if he wishes his life to change, he has to change.  There’s no easy way around it.  And you get the sense that from this experience Elliot has become aware and mindful of what’s happening around him.


Technical:
The star of this film is the many many makeup transformations to indicate the changes in each wish.   I loved them and I appreciated them a lot.

I also appreciated a lot of the scenic imagery in the film.

The green screen work is a little jarring now.  It doesn’t hold up over time.  Not the worse though.  Even in many of today’s films, I’ve seen a lot of bad green screen work, so it’s not an easy thing to pull off.


Performances:
Brendan is amazingly playing all of his characters and leading this film.  They are all vastly different and it really displays his dynamic as an actor.  You just get the sense that he is having so much fun doing this.

Elizabeth Hurley is gorgeously mesmerizing in this film, playing the bad girl all too well.  It’s such a delicious character and she does it well.  Not to mention that she is in fabulous shape.  Wow.

Frances O'Connor is brilliant in this film, keeping up with Brendan with all the many characters.  In each, she manages to keep her character of Allison, but also anew, tailored to the wish.  A very difficult feat.  And Frances had an extra character to play as in Elliot's eventual girlfriend, Nicky, who is much more of a match to him than Allison.

All of the actors were incredibly talented and helped to translate the transformations in each wish wonderfully.  Loved it all.

Best:
The transformation of all of the characters for each wish and Elizabeth Hurley as the devil.  She looks like she’s just having so much fun playing this role.  The film itself is enjoying itself poking fun at the biblical implications of temptation by having the devil dress up as an angel and all sorts of fun details that gives me chuckles.


Wish List:
It’s a little picky, but I wish Elliot didn’t yank half his beard off in the the first wish, because it’s disgusting.  I know it’s suppose to be funny, but I nearly hurled.  I couldn’t even look at him in that scene after that.


The ending:
I loved it.  It's a “feel good” film and it works for me.


Enjoyment:
I love this film!  I know that there are a lot of people who dislike this film and prefer the original released in 1967.   I actually enjoyed the difference between the two as they both stand as time capsules for the year of their creations. 

The comedy really comes from the twist that the devil puts on the wishes… expounding the term, “You get what you ask for.”

It’s a fun cheeky light comedy with a moral antidote, which is a trend in Harold Ramis’ films.  They are funny in the beginning and get more serious by the end.  It’s not for everyone, but I just enjoy that combination so much!  A good example of that is Groundhog Day (1993).

This film explores the emptiness of wishes, when we bypass reality and hard work… leaving it up to chance to make dreams come true. 

It also talks about redemption from things you may be holding on to in the past.  We don’t have to be perfect angels, but we can be our best selves right now.


My Rating:
8.5


That sums up my review.  I hope you liked it.  This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!

Take care movie lovers!  I'm off to the next review!





Join the Retro Nerd Girl movie lovers community over at:





No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)