review for Bedazzled on AllMovie

A wholly unnecessary update of the Dudley Moore-Peter Cook 1967 comedy, Harold Ramis' strident, clunky remake is effectively cast -- it boasts three standout leads with a healthy sense of comic timing -- but pedestrian in tone and wears out its welcome far before it should. Even at a scant 93 minutes, the film feels padded, mostly because the revision isn't particularly clever and never capitalizes on what made the original British picture so funny. Transforming the Devil character into a woman also makes little overall sense, and the physical comedy is only sporadically humorous (though Brendan Fraser makes an ideal foil), leaving a final product that suffers from a serious lack of imagination. Bedazzled also shows signs of some post-production tinkering as evidenced by its occasional sloppiness. This could have been a result of its ever-changing release date, which bumped the film from summer to a crowded fall season, where it did modest business.