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What did you think of "Bedazzled"?
 Good 63% 347
 Bad 23% 124
 Wait for the video 15% 80
Total Votes   551
Bedazzled Bedazzled
Main movies guide

Grade: C+

Verdict: So over the top you'll either enjoy it or be bothered and bewildered by it.

Details: Starring Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. Directed by Harold Ramis. Rated PG-13 for sex-related humor, profanity and some drug content. One hour, 33 minutes.

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: Pour Elizabeth Hurley into a slinky red cocktail dress, have her pout a come-on and most guys will sign anything.

Never mind that she's Satan.

The new devil-made-me-do-it comedy "Bedazzled," a remake of the broad 1967 British cult comedy from the late Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, accomplishes a great turn of casting.

Hurley oozes onto the screen to tempt Brendan Fraser into signing over his soul for seven wishes. There's a girl he's infatuated with and wants to charm.

In the '67 film, Moore was the guy and Cook was the devil. Cook was funny as hell, of course, but no Hurley.

The new "Bedazzled," a thoroughly over-the-top comedy from writer-director Harold Ramis ("Groundhog Day"), is sometimes funny, too. But it's also the kind of movie that can leave you bothered and bewildered.

Among his seven wishes, Fraser's character, an office nerd, seeks riches, power, celebrity, knowledge and more. In succession, he's turned into all sorts of guys - a South American drug lord, a simpering Mr. Sensitive, an overly sweaty basketball superstar, even Abraham Lincoln. Each is a futile attempt to wow the girl of his dreams. And Fraser plays each like he's back in "George of the Jungle."

At a recent preview screening, some 30 moviegoers got up and hiked to the exit nearly halfway through the film. They'd had enough.

You can't blame them. This "Bedazzled," much like the first film, is an acquired taste. You have to appreciate its recklessness, Fraser's willingness to leap into audacious comedy and the fact that it's not just a tale as old as Faust but pretty much the same darned thing.

Ramis, whose "Groundhog Day" was one of the better movies of the past decade, infuses "Bedazzled" with some rather intelligent filmmaking.

The opening, for instance, features city streets where most citizens zip by in perpetual fast-forward. From time to time, one or two stand still as a label lists their "sin."

This isn't your everyday, factory-made comedy.

The movie's trouble, however, arrives sometime around wish four or five. It not only all starts to feel the same, it nearly is the same.

Ultimately, "Bedazzled's" gas just sort of runs out.

Bob Longino, Cox News Service

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