Teuflisch (2000)

Teuflisch: Directed by Harold Ramis. With Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, Frances O’Connor, Miriam Shor. Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul.

“BEDAZZLED (2000) **1/2 Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, Frances Ou0026#39; Connor, Miriam Shor, Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein, Toby Huss. (Dir: Harold Ramis) The old adage: `Be careful what you wish for, For you might receive itu0026#39; clearly applies to this remake of the 1967 cult Brit classic starring Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in this updated farce of the old `Faustu0026#39; legend, but this time with a formidable lead actor and a director of fine comedic pedigree. The former being Fraser cast as a hopeless schlub named Elliot who works as a computer techie in a San Francisco conglomerate where he is disdained by his fellow employees as his self-deluded friends and is equally hapless in love with another co-worker (well letu0026#39;s be frank, some babe who also works in the skyscraper that he spoke to once 4 years ago). Obviously inept at the social graces he makes a boob of himself one night at the local watering hole summoning up the gumption to speak to the fair Alison (Ou0026#39;Connor) with only a tight smile of constrained indifference and when he looks to his friends for a moment, she simply leaves him in his wake walking out of the bar. Speaking to himself and wishing to do anything to have the lady of his dreams fall madly for him sets up the chain of events involving the Devil in A Red Dress (the sultry Hurley having some fun here) to proposition the dorky Elliot into selling his soul to Her for 7 wishes/chances in gaining Alison to be his. The set ups are uneven at best but humorous thanks largely to the always game and amiable Fraser who has a finely tuned comedic grace and delves into his seven incarnations with gusto. Hurley, who is no doubt about it devilishly hot in her many form fitting costumes of debauchery, fumbles a bit here and there but she drips sexuality that sadly the pretty Ou0026#39; Connor fails to elicit for her character (itu0026#39;s vexing to have the fantasy girl of the protagonistu0026#39;s desires to be standard when you have the bodacious Hurley as Satan Herself, popping out of her barely-there outfits). The second part of what makes the re-shaping of the farce is Ramis (who co-wrote the screenplay with his longtime creative partner Peter Tolan and icon scribe Larry Gelbart, whou0026#39;s career encompasses everything from The Golden Age of Television Comedy with Sid Caesar to `Tootsieu0026#39; and tvu0026#39;s `M*A*S*Hu0026#39; not to mention the 180 equivalent of this flick, `Oh, God!u0026#39; with George Burns as The Almighty) whose sublime, low-key approach allows the one-liners and slapstick congeal into one substantial mold whereby the characters you care about and the humor rings a beat after it delivers. That is the signature of a true master of the genre but sad to say it isnu0026#39;t consistent throughout and equally troubling is that you can almost see where each variation of Elliot is heading (and largely you donu0026#39;t sense any true menace from the seemingly harmless Hurley – well at least until there is one knee-knocking moment where sheu0026#39;s a giantess in a flame-red bikini top clearly getting to the point of not fooling with Olu0026#39; Scratch; oh baby!) The loophole laden premise is amusing to watch unspool on the two-steps behind Elliot but the journey itself becomes tiring and that is what makes this naughty comedy two steps behind being hellaciously hilarious.”