When I first heard that folks were doing a movie on the old 60’s sitcom Bewitched, my first thought was “Woohoo! Maybe they’ll finally release the series on DVD!” And, as some of you might know, this is indeed what happened. When DeepDiscountDVD was having their latest 20% off sale (evil bastards!) the season 1 DVD set of Bewitched was one of my many purchases (indeed, the only TV series, for once). I popped disc one into my bedroom DVD player the other night so that Leo and I could watch some quality TV together (we like doing that) and watched the first two episodes.

The next day, I examined the paperwork which was in the DVD set more carefully and noticed they’d included a free ticket to see the Bewitched movie! So the Bewitched movie rewards me by getting the TV series released on DVD, and the DVD set rewards me with a free screening of Bewitched! How nice!

Yesterday, I decided that 3 hours was enough work for me, so after dad and I went out for Chinese Buffet, I went on to Piqua to the Cinemark at the Mall instead of heading back to work like poor (retired) dad did. I used my freebie ticket (woohoo! Saved $3.75!) and got in during the trailers. (Wow – Rent is coming to the movies? Neat trailer.) The movie was my kind of simple fun. I laughed, I cried, I had a good time. The lady doing Aunt Clara was perfect. And even Uncle Arthur was well done. Shirley MacClaine as Endora was inspired casting, as was Michael Cain as the Maurice-style character. I liked Will Ferrell better than either Darren (Darren was never my favorite character in the show – I wonder if he is even in the top 5?). But the most amazing casting coup was Nicole Kidman as the Samantha character! Wow! She even does a nose twitch! 🙂

What I liked best about the movie was that it treated the original series with respect. In particular, Elizabeth Montgomery was treated like the goddess she was. 🙂 There were a few scenes that I thought should have been in the film but weren’t; however, I enjoyed myself (and figure some of ’em will probably be on the DVD when it comes out – if they were ever filmed).

If you’re not a big fan of the original Bewitched series, I really don’t know what you’d think of the movie. If you did love the show as I did, this was a nice heartfelt tribute to a great sitcom!