YMMV / Bedazzled (2000)

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The moral about Elliot using his wishes to make himself more successful and earn Allison's love never worked because the Devil is a Jackass Genie who gives him what he wants and then contrives a reason for him to lose Allison that he overlooked. While the film's moral regarding Allison doesn't hold water, it does still present an important message. No matter what Elliot wished for, no matter how carefully he thought it through, and no matter how well it turned out in some regards, he always ended up losing Allison and revoked the wish solely for that reason. The film thus presents the aesop that everyone has flaws and problems in their lives, no matter how successful or happy they may seem. Having a genie (or Devil) who can grant wishes is nice, but it comes down to how you deal with your flaws and problems, and you should work to improve the things you can change and learn to accept the things you can't. Just because you can't have the perfect life you want doesn't mean you can't have a happy life.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Just what is the Devil's nature and what were her motivations? Was she really trying to claim Elliot's soul for herself? Did she change her mind at the end because she took a liking to him? Is she just a Punch-Clock Villain whose job is test mortals through temptations? Was she just having a laugh? Or was the whole plot a Secret Test of Character for Elliot?
  • The Devil herself offers an in-universe interpretation since, near the end of the film, she appears before Elliot in an angel outfit. While she tells him not to get too excited since "it's just a Halloween costume," it does offer interesting possibilities, especially since most people agree that the devil is a fallen angel, God tells Elliot in prison that he can't give his soul away anyway, and God and the Devil play a friendly game of chess at the end: Is she an angel (albeit a dark one) sent by God to help lost souls like Elliot find their way through an Unconventional Learning Experience by pretending to be out for their souls? Did God really circumvent the Devil's attempt to take Elliot's soul by talking to him in prison, or did they both plan it as a way to help Elliot learn and grow?
• Ass Pull: The movie made no mention of a selfless wish letting you keep your soul until Elliot makes one at the end. Though we were briefly shown that there is a lot of clauses on the contract that are made in fine print...
• Best Known for the Fanservice: If you've sought this film out, it's more than likely because of Elizabeth Hurley whose at the peak of her sexiness here.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The film was premiered on the Russian TNT channel on February 26, 2010. In the film, the Devil mentions that Elliot should hurry up with his final wish, as she has "an earthquake in Chile". The next day, there was a powerful earthquake in Chile.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This isn't the only time God was black.
• Hollywood Homely: Elliot laments several times that he wishes he were better-looking, while being played by Brendan Fraser at the peak of his Hollywood heartthrob status.
• Magnificent Bitch: The Devil herself is a sultry wish-granter who seduces humans into surrendering their immortal souls in exchange for their grandest desires. The Devil has successfully conned mortals for thousands of years and millions of souls, always maintaining a chipper, likable attitude even through her many years of evil doing. Manipulating Elliot into being her latest victim under promise for a set amount of wishes, the Devil tricks him into making a variety of requests that she always corrupts or twists in some manner, forcing Elliot to consistently waste his wishes. Even though Elliot winds up doing the impossible and getting out of his contract with the Devil by showing his willingness to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, the Devil faces her undoing with nothing but grace and respect for Elliot, and continues her ages-long chess game against God himself for the soul of humanity.
• Memetic Mutation: Few scenes got their second life as reaction macros - most notably the overly emotional Elliot crying at the sunset.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Shortly after Elliot's unexpectedly penultimate wish, he indignantly revokes his commitment to the absurdly unfair deal. This whimsical Princess of Darkness suddenly acquires a definite hint of menace.
    The Devil: "Fair"? Who do you think you're talking too? I don't recall anybody accusing me of being fair before. I think I'm insulted.
  • After a night in prison, he makes his way alone to the Devil's nightclub, which, with its dazed early morning revellers, seems less playfully zany than lonely. In her office, the Devil suddenly grows impatient with Elliot's non-compliance.
    The Devil: Well, before you get all hinky, I think I should warn you: I do have a darker side, and believe me, it's not pretty. Now you can go easy, or you can go hard, but one way or another, I will get your soul.
• Values Dissonance: The wish that makes Elliot an author makes him brilliant, charming, successful and handsome — only for the joke to make him gay and living with a male partner. In modern eras of increased LGBTQIA+ issues, awareness and representation framing being gay as a joke wouldn't go over well.
• Values Resonance: In the end, Elliot realizes he was Loving a Shadow and didn't really know Allison that well, he was just attracted to her physically, and wishing away his flaws to try and make himself worthy of her was never going to work. But going through his Character Development has given him clarity on life and what he wants, and allowed him to be confident enough to just ask Allison out. While he's disappointed to find she already has a boyfriend, he accepts this and wishes her well, and then meets a new woman who shares his interest and quirks. In today's culture with the rise of incel culture of men with poor self-esteem who believe getting a hot girlfriend will solve their problems, and are hateful of women for rejecting them, an ending like this comes across as much more realistic than is usually shown in Hollywood and resonates more with audiences today than it would at the time of its release.

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