Jun 24, 2005 3:23 pm US/Central
Bewitched
Richard Roeper: "Skip It"
Richard Roeper
(CBS 2)
Forget about Veronica versus Betty or Mary Ann against Ginger. I always thought the real debate about the sexiest woman of the 1960s involved a submissive genie named Jeannie versus a mischievous witch named Samantha. I'll take the witch.
There was something sly, sexy and a little bit subversive about Elizabeth Montgomery's portrayal of Samantha Stevens on the old "Bewitched" show. But in the movie version, Nicole Kidman plays Samantha as an empty-headed, naïve romantic who arrives in Southern California ready to fall for the first idiot she meets.
But if you want a normal life, why fall for a preening actor, and why become and actress yourself? This is one of the many inconsistencies in Nora Ephron's "Bewitched," which has the look of a movie that has been rewritten many, many, many times. It's an uneven, inconsistent mess plagued by a laugh-free script, cheesy special effects and flat, uninspired performances from some normally reliable stars.
Shirley MacLaine isn't given much to do with the Endora character. And as much as I love Will Ferrell, he plays Darrin as such a lout, such a self-obsessed chucklehead, that we have no rooting interest in the tepid romance.
The movie version of "Bewitched" turns Darrin into an even bigger bumbler than he was on the TV show--but even worse, it commits the sin of turning the world's sexiest witch into a boring airhead.
"Bewitched" is rated PG-13 and you can Skip It.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.)
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