Bewitched DVD Review (Nicole Kidman) Empire Movies

BEWITCHED DVD REVIEW

Bewitched
(Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

5/10

6.5/10

Liam

I'll readily admit that I am sometimes fooled by my own expectations. Bewitched is a perfect example. The movie was a critical and box-office dud, so I went into the DVD expecting very little. Then something happened. For the first bit of this movie, I was actually enjoying myself. And I was left asking, "What the hell is wrong with me?!". Did Bewitched cast a spell on me? Then, thankfully, as the movie went on (and on) I found myself becoming more and more disenchanted to the point where the movie completely lost my interest. And everything was okay with the world...

Just to recap, Bewitched is big screen re-imagining of the TV classic. In the movie, a terrible actor named Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) finds his star in Hollywood fading, so he signs on to star as Darrin in a TV remake of Bewitched. When he sets out to cast an unknown in the role of Samantha, he finds Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman). However, what he doesn't know is that she's actually a witch in real life too. Unfortunately for her, she's a bit of a clueless witch. She's just joined the human race in a bid to live a "normal" life, and she doesn't have any idea about how to do so. So, when the role of Samantha comes her way, she foolishly accepts and even more foolishly begins to fall for Jack Wyatt. Soon though, Jack reveals what a jackass he is, and Isabel lets him feel her wrath. She eventually comes clean about being a witch, Jack gets freaked out, they eventually reconcile and they live happily ever after. Yes, I know I'm giving it away, but I'm sure you saw all of that coming.

So yeah, I was actually enjoying the movie. Up to a point. Then, it lost me. Isabel put her spell on Jack. Jack started acting like more of a fool than he had up until that point. And I lost interest. As I said earlier, I went into the movie with no expectations. Then, as I found myself enjoying the movie, my expectations were also increasing. So, when it did fall apart, it was that much more of a disappointment.

A couple of side notes. I expect Will Ferrell in movies like this, so I'm not really disappointed. But what happened to Nicole Kidman? How did she go from movies like Moulin Rouge and The Hours to movies like The Stepford Wives and Bewitched?! To be honest, I can't imagine anyone else in this role, but still, I expect more from her. And Nora Ephron? She's another person who I expected more from. (Maybe my expectations for this movie were a little higher than I initially thought?)

Special features on this DVD include an audio commentary by director Nora Ephron, a "Witch Vision Trivia Track" where, when watching the movie, you get some pop-up-video-style tidbits about the movie and the original TV show, a series of deleted scenes, a making-of featurette titled "Casting a Spell: Making Bewitched", several mini-features about the stars of the movie and the characters they are playing, a Bewitched Trivia Game and finally some previews.

I thought that, having never watched the original TV show, I would be going into this movie with a fresh point of view. Maybe it would help me that I had no preconceived notions about what this movie "should" be. At the same time, I wonder now if the movie would have actually been better had I known more about the TV show. I guess I'll never know.

Features
Deleted Scenes, Director's Commentary, Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, Witch Vision Trivia Track

Video
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Audio
English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles
English, French, Closed-Captioned

Release Date
October 25, 2005

Rating
PG-13/PG

Length
102 mins.

Email Liam About This Review:

Your Name:

Your Email Address:

The information entered on this page will not be used to send unsolicited email
and will not be sold to a third party. Please refer to our Privacy Policy.