Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

not as good as all the hype

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Whenever I know something is a remake, I try my darnedest to always see the original and the remake. Being a kid in the 90s my only knowledge of Bedazzled was the Hurley/Fraser remake, still makes me laugh. However I did enjoy this one more than that one. My favorite parts were 1)the botched hanging; I cant recall another time I've laughed so hard at a characters suicide attempt. 2) the pop star scene; from the 1st LOVE ME scream to the crowd falling upon Wedge this was my fav scene in the entire movie. I loved both songs, they were really catchy. 3)the fly bit; I laugh anytime a camera is really close and shaking in a persons face. 4) the make out scene in the car; those 2 making out, crying, and doting on Peter's character was Hilarious!! 5)the bouncing nuns; did not see that coming, his fear of jumping off the board was just too funny. This was a really pleasant piece of 60s cinema, definitely would watch again...

A hapless loser (Dudley Moore) sells his soul to the Devil (Peter Cook) in exchange for seven wishes, but has trouble winning over the girl of his dreams (Eleanor Bron).An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, Cook is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was closely associated with the anti-establishment comedy that emerged in Britain and the United States in the late 1950s.Others have said Cook (and this film) are sort of a precursor to Monty Python, and I can see that. The mocking of religion is there, especially with the nuns on trampolines. The film does seem to run a bit long and get stale in places, but as a whole it is a breath of fresh air, a piece of film history ushering in a new era of comedy.

What if The Devil were a smartass, lanky British dude instead of an unspeakably evil fire-monster? What if God wasn't a bearded Abercrombie & Fitch model but an invisible, booming disembodied voice who likes to maniacally cackle in his spare time? What if Lust, one of the seven deadly sins, was embodied by the curvaceous Raquel Welch? What if … okay, okay, I've given you plenty of what-ifs to let your imaginations run wild; now, wrap all those what-ifs into a profitable ball of madcap comedic energy and you'll get Bedazzled, one of the finest comedies of the last 50 years.It isn't funny haha like Airplane!, you might say, and it isn't trying to say something like the socially conscious Sullivan's Travels; Bedazzled is a collection of clever quips and dryly funny performances glued together with an insanely ingenious storyline that hits you with the force of a sexy wink from Linda Evangelista. It isn't anything other than consistently wicked and consistently engaging; yet comedy in the 1960s seems to be most attributed to Peter Sellers' greatest vehicles. But The Pink Panther series has its limits; Bedazzled, on the other hand, seems limitless. It may be tongue-in-cheek in its attitudes towards soul selling and heaven and hell's tricky relationship, but it is overtly serious when it comes to being unpredictable and quick. To call it underrated would be an understatement.Dudley Moore, always an under-appreciated comedic talent, portrays Stanley Moon, a hapless fry cook hopelessly in love with his coworker, the lovely Margaret (Eleanor Bron). He has kept his feelings secret for years, and, too nervous to do anything about them, finally decides that he's much too miserable in life to continue going on. So, he ties a noose to his apartment's pipe, jumps, and … well, the pipe breaks. But fear not; just as Stanley is about to lose hope once again, The Devil himself (Peter Cook) appears at his door, offering a sinful deal: if he grants Stanley seven wishes, then he, in return, will collect the poor man's soul. Stanley doesn't even hesitate - what does he have to lose? - and indeed goes through with The Devil's plan. All his wishes revolve around capturing Margaret's attention, but as The Bible has told us several times, you can't just trust the most vile force in the universe.Like Sellers in Doctor Strangelove, Moore is given the chance to try on several personas and see where they go; when he wishes for eloquence in hopes to seduce Margaret with his mind, he adopts a smooth attitude and an intellectual Welsh accent to back himself up. When he asks The Devil to give him the swagger of a rock star, he really turns into a rock star, singing with the charisma of Roger Daltrey. Moore is so insanely versatile that awe is the only emotion that seems to come out of us; the fluctuations in his performances are so subtle that you have to remind yourself just how much talent it takes to switch characterizations back and forth so many times in a single movie.But if I've made the film sound like a fantasy romp with a stellar performance at its core, that only scratches the surface. Cook, as much as Moore, can spit out adept pieces of dialogue with the wit of the most seasoned of comedians (an increasingly impressive feat considering much of the film is improvised), and Stanley Donen, most known for his musical features (Singin' in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) keeps up with the forward thinking ideals of filmmaking in the 1960s, providing Bedazzled with a solid foundation while also giving it room to go off- the-rails when it needs to. Films like Bedazzled work so well not just because of the talent involved; they work so well because everything they do is funny, existing in a parallel universe comprised of remarkably backwards humor. Along with Raquel Welch's sex appeal, it hasn't aged a bit.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

I had seen the Brendan Fraser/Elizabeth Hurley version long before this original from director Stanley Donen (Singin' in the Rain) and written by the two leading actors. It is exactly the same premise, a guy - Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore) - wants to be with a girl - Margaret Spencer (Eleanor Bron) - and along comes The Devil, aka George Spiggott (Peter Cook), and the guy signs a contract for seven wishes in exchange for his soul. Throughout the film Stanley becomes articulate intellectual, a wealthy industrialist, a brief rock star, has an affair, a fly on the wall and a nun, oh, and gets an ice lolly. In the end though, instead of the Devil demanding he makes a final wish and it isn't for himself, Stanley uses them all, and the Devil simply turns nice to get God to take him back into Heaven. Also starring a pretty brief Raquel Welch as Lilian Lust, Alba as Vanity, Robert Russell as Anger; Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna Everage as Envy, Parnell McGarry as Gluttony, Danièle Noël as Avarice, Howard Goorney as Sloth, Michael Bates as Insp. Reg Clarke, Bernard Spear as Irving Moses, Robin Hawdon as Randolph, Michael Trubshawe as Lord Dowdy, Evelyn Moore as Mrs. Wisby, Charles Lloyd Pack as Vicar and Lockwood West as St. Peter. In my opinion, this isn't as good as the much more lively and modern remake, this just feels too 60's, it seems much more chatty, and there was not much to laugh at. Cook is not as fun as the sexy interpretation by Hurley, Moore is not as concerned as Fraser, I think Welch would been a very seductive Devil, probably more so than Hurley, but if you like old fashioned comedy, this is worth seeing, at least once. Okay!