Me dazzled? Not a chance!

This movie confirmed one of my core beliefs: That the Devil is a woman. I was pretty much sure of it anyway, but it was nice seeing a confirmation on the big screen. :-)

Okay okay. Now what's this movie about? Its about the devil making a trade-off (Yeah, you got that right: the devil has to bargain. Looks like we don't have a very strong devil in our midst now do we?). What's the deal? Someone has to pledge his soul in return for seven wishes.

Enter Elliot (Brendan Fraser). Elliot is a tech support worker who has zero social skills (He carries snaps of stereo equipment that he is GOING to buy). He has, as all tech support workers with zero social skills must have, a huge crush on a coworker.

Enter Alison (Francis O'Conner). She is the object of our friend Elliot's desires. But she doesn't even know that he exists.

Enter The Devil (Elizabeth Hurley). She wants a soul. And who better, more gullible then Elliot? She offers him seven wishes in exchange for his soul. "Souls are overrated anyway". Or so she says.

But the devil, like all women (he he he), is evil. So even though our brave and valiant Elliot wishes for wishes that will make him happy, the devil adds her own twist to each and every one of his wish. Elliot wishes to be rich and powerful and married to Alison. So the devil makes him rich and powerful. She makes him a Colombian drug lord, and he has to leap and jump and run helter skelter to avoid bullets from men eager to kill him. As for Alison? Well, he's married to her all right, but no one said anything about no love. Alison, unfortunately for Elliot, loves her English tutor Raoul (pronounced "Raaa-ooo-l". You know --- in the snobbish way).

All his remaining wishes go the same way, the devil managing to find an inconsistency that will make his dream wish turn into, what else, hell.

Brendan Fraser has pretty much perfected the art of playing the goofy lover boy. He does an okay acting job here, making us believe in the character that he plays. Elizabeth Hurley, as the devil, doesn't have to act much. She mainly has to look sexy and wear skimpy clothes. Which she does. Francis O'Conner as Alison, Elliot's love interest, doesn't have to act at all. She just has to show us her beautiful face. Which she manages to pull off with elan, because well, she does have a beautiful face.

The reason that this film is bad, is that it's funny only in brief parts. Most of the situations are so obviously set up, that you already know how the jokes are going to end out. So naturally, when the punchline is delivered, you don't laugh. You go "duh". I think they tried to make it a cross between a romantic comedy and an out and out comedy, but sadly ended up neither here nor there. In fact, I didn't even know that this film was supposed to be a comedy. I came out after seeing the film, and the next day I read a review in the paper that described it as "a comedy".

And I slapped my hand on my forehead and went: "Oh gee, so it was a comedy? Then how come I wasn't laughing? Maybe somethings gone wrong with my sense of humor".

But nothings gone wrong with my sense of humor. You can't say the same about the movie though.

It's simply not funny enough for a comedy. There are a few lines and scenes that bought a smile to my face, but they are too few and far between. Another thing that they got wrong was that they made the devil too soft. She's not frightening or threatening enough. For a normal woman yes, but not for the devil.

In fact, if this is really what the devil is like...

THEN I WOULDN'T MIND BURNING IN HELL.