I went off to see Bewitched last night, which was based on an old TV series of the same name.
I've never watched a single episode of the Bewitched TV series, I'm not even sure whether reruns of Bewitched were shown in Malaysia before or not. But from what I know, Bewitched is about some normal guy marrying a witch, and goofiness ensues during their married life.
This movie, however, has a different twist from most other remakes. Instead of merely updating the settings, this movie takes a more meta approach by being about people trying to do a remake of the old series Bewitched. Movie star Jack Wyatt (Ferrell), after suffering a major flop of 'The Island' proportions (okay, maybe even worse) with his last film, has to end up taking the Keifer Sutherland route and star in TV series. Unfortunately, instead of being in a cool show like '24' that is globally loved, he has to be in the remake of 'Bewitched'.
Demanding to have an unknown actress for the Samantha (the witch wife) role so that he doesn't have to share his spotlight with anyone else, he found Isabel (Kidman), who happened to be a REAL witch!!! Comedy and romance ensue. But then, being a romantic comedy, this film, to me, just fell short on both aspects. It's not funny enough, even though Ferrell tried hard, and Michael Caine, as Isabel's dad, too, I don't remember laughing at all throughout the film, perhaps a smile here and there. And er, I don't really think there's anything romantic going on between Isabel and Jack? A lack of chemistry, perhaps.
I just feel that there's something rather artificial about the way romance is developed between the characters of Nora Ephron's romantic comedies.
Anyway, back to 'Bewitched', I was expecting a piece of trash when I went into a cinema, and ended up being mildly amused, but it's totally forgettable. I won't recommend this film to anyone, but neither will I recommend against it either. I'm just indifferent, so I guess it's a bad thing.
I've never watched a single episode of the Bewitched TV series, I'm not even sure whether reruns of Bewitched were shown in Malaysia before or not. But from what I know, Bewitched is about some normal guy marrying a witch, and goofiness ensues during their married life.
This movie, however, has a different twist from most other remakes. Instead of merely updating the settings, this movie takes a more meta approach by being about people trying to do a remake of the old series Bewitched. Movie star Jack Wyatt (Ferrell), after suffering a major flop of 'The Island' proportions (okay, maybe even worse) with his last film, has to end up taking the Keifer Sutherland route and star in TV series. Unfortunately, instead of being in a cool show like '24' that is globally loved, he has to be in the remake of 'Bewitched'.
Demanding to have an unknown actress for the Samantha (the witch wife) role so that he doesn't have to share his spotlight with anyone else, he found Isabel (Kidman), who happened to be a REAL witch!!! Comedy and romance ensue. But then, being a romantic comedy, this film, to me, just fell short on both aspects. It's not funny enough, even though Ferrell tried hard, and Michael Caine, as Isabel's dad, too, I don't remember laughing at all throughout the film, perhaps a smile here and there. And er, I don't really think there's anything romantic going on between Isabel and Jack? A lack of chemistry, perhaps.
I just feel that there's something rather artificial about the way romance is developed between the characters of Nora Ephron's romantic comedies.
Anyway, back to 'Bewitched', I was expecting a piece of trash when I went into a cinema, and ended up being mildly amused, but it's totally forgettable. I won't recommend this film to anyone, but neither will I recommend against it either. I'm just indifferent, so I guess it's a bad thing.
