Starring Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, Frances O’Connor, Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein, Toby Huss, Brian Doyle-Murray

(5-Okay Film)

Energetic. Wild. Amusing.

The Devil: I am the Devil! Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, the Prince of Darkness! Well, the Princ-ess of Darkness, anyway.

In true Faustian fashion, lonely, lovelorn Elliot Richards (Fraser) makes a deal with the devil; a very attractive devil portrayed by Elizabeth Hurley in various outfits. He gets seven wishes and she gets his soul. Pushing theology aside, and of course, this is a fantasy, the setup still doesn’t make a lot of sense. That’s mostly okay because it proves to be a good deal of fun. It’s more like W.W Jacob’s famous short story, The Monkey’s Paw. Elliot makes a wish and The Devil finds a way to make it horrible. The story unfolds episodically with each wish becoming its own chapter and the way in which The Devil ruins it being like a punchline to a joke. These episodes are pretty fun with Brendan Fraser playing a different absurd character in each one. All in all, Bedazzled is fun, often amusing, but not hilarious, and what does it say about me that I couldn’t help wanting Elliot Richards to romance The Devil? I wonder.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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