Bedazzled (2000)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2000
	Director: Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Multiplicity)
	Actors: Brendan Fraser (Encino Man, The Mummy), Elizabeth Hurley (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), Frances O'Connor
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Elliot (Fraser) has a meaningless life, bullied or avoided by work colleagues, and unsuccessful with women. That is until the Devil grants him seven wishes against his soul.
Review: This light comedy is in fact a remake of a 1967 movie with the same title, with I guess humor adapted to the new century. It features a goofy Brendan Fraser that I discovered in the 1992 Encino Man with Sean Astin (The Goonies, The Lord of the Rings), and right between the two  box-office hits The Mummy and its sequel by Stephen Sommers. Two years after Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, one of my favorite movies at the time, the Sexy British Elizabeth Hurley plays nicely the temptress Devil. The movie starts and ends like a classic Romantic Comedy, with in the middle seven comedy episodes that everybody is waiting for. Because as in the 1997 Wishmaster, that devilish genie interprets for you the wishes that you have not specified well enough: you want to be rich and famous? you become a druglord! And the contract signatory is bad at doing that and it takes him six trials to get it right (sort of), which is what makes the anticipated comedy in that movie (while it was doing the anticipated Horror effect in Wishmaster). The situations in which Fraser acts are exaggerated but as we move on pretty quickly to interludes with Elizabeth Hurley in swimming suit, the movie is easy to watch. Note that it was directed by Harold Ramis who played Spengler in Ghostbusters and directed classic American comedies in the 90's like Multiplicity and Groundhog Day.
Rating: 5 /10