बिविच्ड

Are a few good laughs worth wasting 100 minutes of time? For me, the answer is a resounding "No!" There are far more promising avenues to explore in the quest for laughter than the dead-end represented by Will Farrell's latest endeavor, Bewitched. Putting aside the juvenile humor (which is admittedly, albeit unevenly, funny), all that's left is a woefully underwritten motion picture. The last 30 minutes is so godawful that it almost sent me screaming from the theater.

When you consider that this film stars one of the most successful comedic actors of the past decade as well as a very cool premise revolving around a beloved old TV show, this could have been a much funnier movie. Instead, we're left with a handful of chuckles and not enough gas to cover the film's short runtime. We also get a butchering of that beloved old TV show. This thing tries to be too cute for it's own good. It's a film about a film about an old TV show called Bewitched. GACK. Just call it awful and be done with it.

Nicole Kidman makes the whole wretched thing almost palatable. The, supposedly, inventiveness of this farce within a farce is hammered on with such lack of subtlety that, sometimes, you want to shout at the screen "Hey you! We're not brain dead! We got it! Move on! Will Ferrell is still a great TV comedian. How is it possible that nobody has told him that on the big screen less is more. Strangely, Nicole Kidman, the witch, is totally rooted in reality, we believe her. Will Ferrell, the mortal, is a loud caricature from beginning to end and we just can't get the attraction. There are some little perks however, Carole Shelley as Aunt Clara took me, thankfully, out of the movie and I spent at least 15 minutes asking myself where I've seen this actress before - The Odd Couple, one of the Pigeon sisters! Goodness! I was uncomfortable with Shirley MacLaine's cameo because I love her and I could only focus on the strange tightness in her face. I am a Kidmanite through and through that's why I go to see everything she does because I know that, even if she's involved in something quite beneath her, she manages to sparkle, to shine to surprise. Thank God for you Nicole.

The basic story is that Jack Wyatt, a washed-up movie actor, needs a new angle and decides it is television. Everyone settles on re-activating "Bewitched." Now he needs a Samantha and by accident picks the real thing (a witch).

You could guess the rest.

Everyone tried too hard. It was not uniquely anything except nothing.

Will Ferrell is not good at anything; in this case, he does his best at being annoying. Nicole Kidman is too cute at being cutesy. Only Michael Caine holds it together. That is what there is to hold together.

You do not even feel like kibitzing and will be glad when it is over.

Please give me a break. The idea was quite original but somewhere the whole thing went south. I truly feel bad for Nicole Kidman and Will Farrell. There were so many ways this movie could have went instead of disappointing the true die hard Bewitched fans.

Weak plot, undefined characters, I truly felt as if someone said, "OK, we're bored with this, let's piece it together and call it a day." It would been nice if Isabel could have been seen as someone who was smarter and not so vulnerable and innocent.

I would put this in the same category of any 12 year old "I wanna be a pricess" movie. You wait three decades to find out what happened to Darrin and Samantha and you get a remake that's not really a remake. Some of the characters are from the original, some are transformed to the movie, some are just unknown. What happened? I'm insulted that Nora Ephron thought any true fan would be pleased with this movie.

Didn't someone think about running this by the true fans before rushing it out to a theater? There were times I was embarrassed to be in the audience. A total waste of $16.

A few funny moments but not worth the pain of sitting through the entire movie -- and I'm an easy laugh.

I quite enjoyed Bewitched. I was familiar with the TV show of the 60s and believe Elizabeth Montgomery made the role her own. However Nicole Kidman wasn't too bad and even mastered the iconic nose twitch for the role. The story was quite interesting, believable to an extent and entertaining. Will Ferrell also did a great job as her co- star. As far as remakes go this was pretty well done and had some decent performances.

I do not feel it deserves such a low rating as I too was a fan of the classic TV show and can appreciate this film. I won't be surprised if people listened to 'critics' and made up their minds not to like it. However every person who fancies him or herself as a reasonable film critic should consider the canon law. Thou must not judge a film on its reviews but on its merit and worth.