Starring:
Nicole Kidman as Isabel Bigelow/Samantha
Will Ferrell as Jack Wyatt/Darrin
Shirley MacLaine as Iris Smythson/Endora
Michael Caine as Nigel Bigelow
Jason Schwartzman as Ritchie
... and some other extras working on the TV series

Isabel Bigelow is a real witch who has a simple desire: being normal. She wants to stop doing magic and just be like everyone else. Meanwhile, Jack Wyatt is thinking about remaking the classic TV series "Bewitched" and that's when he finds the perfect actress for the role of Samantha (a witch who wants to be normal and gets married to a husband who accepts her for what she is): Isabel. She has never watched the sitcom and Jack, who will play her husband in the TV show, has no clue she's a real witch. When he finds out, will it be just like in the series or will he just be freaked out?

Movies based on videogames are known to be average, and it seems movies based on sitcoms are heading this way (please don't make a movie on Friends or Lost if you're going to screw it up anyways). I personally think Bewitched is a fine sitcom - not very funny, but it's charming and has its moments -, but the movie is boring and another one of those romantic comedies we're tired of. Like Monster-In-Law, but worse.

Nicole Kidman is a great actress, but she's getting some weird roles recently. She was in The Human Stain (which sucked) and in Birth (which was, admit it, boring - what's with those ten-minute close-ups?), and now this. I can't think of an actress who would be better for the role, but it's a shame to see the woman who was the main character of The Others working in these bad flicks. The problem in Bewitched is the plot. The dialogues are dull and boring; except for Kidman, Ferrell and Caine, all characters are stupid and weak (sorry, Shirley MacLaine... Agnes Moorehead kicks your ass as Endora). There's one particular neighbor of Kidman's I couldn't stand. I just wanted to scream every time she appeared on the screen. Fortunately, I didn't see a lot of her...

The movie had potential to be a very good romantic comedy, charming like the original material; but Hollywood is known to ruin famous franchises. I have no clue who this director/writer Nora Ephron is, but one thing is for sure: she should have watched more Bewitched and thought a little less about the money she could make in the film. The result is out there: the movie cost about US$80 million and it still didn't get that in the box office (still US$20 million to go, if I'm not mistaken). We all know americans love the genre... If only the movie was good, it could've been a blockbuster... Will Ferrell is a funny guy, take a look at Wedding Crashers for example - or even better, the MTV Movie Awards opening when he played the Architect from Matrix Reloaded, one of the funniest scenes EVER.

There were some special effects which were well done, nothing to complain. Fans of the sitcom will find many references (some of them forced, just to make sure the movie was faithful). Bewitched is not at all bad: it has a neat soundtrack if you like "oldies" like Frank Sinatra, Loius Armstrong and such. That's about it, folks. Sorry.

I give this dull romantic comedy based on the classic sitcom that goes by the same title two out of five, and I'm being nice.

Props to HOI