I took my 12 year old daughter to see “Bewitched” on friday, and I have to admit I was pleasantly suprised. It echoed the old show, in that it wasn’t deep, and never pretended to be. Micheal Cain is still delicious and Nichole Kidman was wonderful. Shirley McClain is perfect. I did find Will Ferral to be somewhat annoying, but, on the whole, he was balanced out so well that it didn’t matter.
Will Ferrell can do no wrong. I will have his babies. How am I going to make that work, I’m not quite sure yet.
He was annoying in the film, but you have to realize, he was supposed to be
Nichole Kidman has never done anything for me, but for some reason, I found her stunning in this movie.
I have never seen the original.
My dad (who apparently had a major crush on Elizabeth Montgomery back in the day) and I went to go see it yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t read any reviews, but I thought it was very cute – of course the characters and plot had no depth and usually no sense, of course the delicious actors of the old guard were criminally underused, and of course there was a noticeable lack of chemistry between the two leads.
But! Nicole Kidman was beyond luminous (when I see her at award shows or otherwise out-of-character, I think she looks stretched and pointy, but my GOD, was she beautiful!), the costumes and cinematography were attractive, and the score and incidental music were excellent. It wasn’t a waste of two hours.
My sister was married to an actor. Shortly after they moved to L.A., he got a fairly major guest part on one episode of Bewitched. We visited them the week after that episode was shot. He gave us the behind-the-scenes tour of the studio, including the Bewitched set. While we were there and he was describing things to us, Elizabeth Montgomery walked up behind us and punched him in the back. He introduced us all to her and I fell in love on the spot. The fact that she was 15 years older than me was immaterial. She was a gorgeous, gracious woman who took the time to talk to a tongue-tied teenager and made me feel like I was important to her; a true class act.
I cried when I heard of her death. I’m starting to get puddle-eyed right now.
I hope that Nicole Kidman does justice to the part. She’s got some big shoes to fill.
I wanted to BE Samantha Stevens. I sorta kinda, ok, not really look like her (or did).
I thought she was great. (I loved her"Well? more like “Whheell?”) and of course, her nose.
Now the witches here may kill me, but I have alot of respect for witches, because of the show. Afterall, although alot of it was silly, it was Sam, not the “mortals,” who solved that advertising crisis each and every time. It was “magic” that helped solve problems and while it may have been demeaning (9 y/o me didn’t pick up on that part, although I did with Jeannie…hmmmm), witchcraft was presented in a non-condemnatory way. It was recognized on the show as a whole other world with rules, tradtions etc. It was not presented as evil or satanic or disgusting or something to be feared (for the most part).
Sorry to go off on a tangent, my daughter and I want to go see it this weekend.
I am swallowing my ugh of NK and WF to go see it.
I have an interesting relationship with this franchise. (It started with a movie, If I remember correctly, or maybe they just ran the pilot as a movie. Google only turned up stuff about the new movie.)
I’m named after the male co-lead. Not so much for the character, I’m told, but because my Mom liked the sound of the name.
But still, named after a sit-com. (And Darrin on the show is such a schmiel, not stupid, just ineffectual.)
And now my namesake being played by Will Ferrel?? I may die of shame.
Most mothers of the era wimped out and spelled it Darren. Not mine. Mom was nothing, if not authentic.
Not bad. Will Ferrell is a big turnoff for me but then again Darrin Stephens was a jerk in the original series so it kinda worked.
I was really hoping they’d reuse the sound effects from the original series, or at least something close to it. A single strong piano chord made Endora’s entrance much more grand. A spell cast via the wave of a hand seemed somehow empty without the accompanying strum of an autoharp.
I wish Shirley McClain had more screen time. Even though the part she was playing wasn’t the mother-in-law, that was how she was playing it and she did a great job.
The ear-tug was silly. I thought of Carol Burnette every time she did that.