Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul.Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul.Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul.
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia(at around 1h 4 mins) The mathematics homework that the Devil removes from the classroom blackboard was effectively to prove Fermat's Last Theorem--a legendary problem from 1630 that was often the subject of stories about people selling their souls to solve it. The problem was eventually solved in 1995 by Andrew Wiles and colleagues (with computer, not Satanic, assistance).
- Goofs(at around 1h 7 mins) When Elliot becomes Lincoln about to leave for his fateful visit to the Ford's Theater, his wife refers to "Our American Cousin" as an "entirely new play." In fact, "Our American Cousin" was first performed in 1858, seven years before Lincoln's assassination, and the performance which Lincoln saw was the play's thousandth.
- Quotes
Elliot's Cellmate: She's the devil, that one.
Elliot Richards: What?
Elliot's Cellmate: I said she's the devil... that lady cop.
Elliot Richards: Oh... yeah. I guess.
Elliot's Cellmate: So what are you in for brother?
Elliot Richards: Eternity.
Elliot's Cellmate: Ooooh... that's a long time. You must have done some really bad shit.
Elliot Richards: Yeah. I sold my soul.
Elliot's Cellmate: Hope you got something good for it.
Elliot Richards: As a matter of fact, I got nothing for it.
Elliot's Cellmate: Well, that's a really bad deal if you ask me.
Elliot Richards: Well I'm not asking you.
Elliot's Cellmate: Doesn't really matter, though. Can't sell your soul anyway.
Elliot Richards: Oh, really? Why do you say that?
Elliot's Cellmate: Because it doesn't really belong to you in the first place. No way, no how.
Elliot Richards: So who does it belong to?
Elliot's Cellmate: It belongs to God. That universal spirit that animates and binds all things in existence. The Devil's gonna try to confuse you, that's her game. But in the end, you're gonna see clear to who and what you are, and what you're here to do. Now, you gonna make some mistakes along the way, everybody does. But if you just open up your heart, and open up your mind, you'll get it.
Elliot Richards: ...Who are you?
Elliot's Cellmate: [smiles] Just a friend, brother. Just a really good friend.
- Alternate versionsIn a streamed version of this in the UK, the following changes are made: During the opening credits, many (but not all) of the on-screen graphics describing the characteristics of various personalities and locations are removed completely and replaced with PGS subtitles that are positioned incorrectly in the usual subtitle location at the bottom of the picture and are not animated. The few in situ graphics that remain also have subtitles. There is a completely changed scene at the start of the "President" segment. During the basketball sequence, on-screen graphics and wipes for Fox Sports and the names of the commentators are removed. There are no subtitles to replace them. There is another missing, subtitled graphic at the end of the film.
- SoundtracksJust the One (I've Been Lookin' For)
Written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd and Al Bell (as Alvertis Isbell)
Performed by Johnnie Taylor
Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products
Brendan Fraser is certainly adequate to the job of playing Elliot Richards but Ms. Hurley steals the film.
She is perfectly cast as the `Princess of Darkness' and seems to truly enjoy exposing her darker side.
Brendan Fraser turns in a real acting tour d'force playing eight different characters. Possibly because of all the widely divergent characters he is playing he is not truly great in any of them though he is hysterically funny due primarily to the superb script by Larry Gelbart (of television's M*A*S*H fame), Harold Ramis (who also directed) and Peter Tolan from the original screen play by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
The Devil's demons (which appear in nearly every scene in one form or another) are great supporting roles played by Orlando Jones, Paul Adelstein and Toby Huss. They provide just the right touch of devilish humour, charm and wit. Another bit of casting genius and writing is Gabriel Casseus as Elliot's cellmate who expounds on the soul and is later seen playing chess with The Devil (who cheats, of course).
In fact all of the supporting characters were perfectly cast and brilliantly executed.
The script was so tight and well written that it was almost actor-proof. It was even able to carry a moral message without slamming the audience in the head with it.
To paraphrase an idea from the film you get out of life [and this film] what you put into it.
This was an all-around good film with good direction, good jokes, good acting, excellent make-up (especially on Brendan Fraser by Ben Nye, Jr.) and a good yet unobtrusive score. I recommend it highly.
- TuckMN
- Nov 1, 2000
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Засліплений бажаннями
- Filming locations
- Santa Barbara, California, USA(on location)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $48,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $37,886,980
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $13,106,526
- Oct 22, 2000
- Gross worldwide
- $90,383,208
- Runtime1 hour 33 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1