The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
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The Witches of Eastwick Movie Review
The Witches of Eastwick is a 1987 fantasy comedy film directed by George Miller and starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher and Susan Sarandon. It is a solid, funny flick.
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“Who are you?
Just your average, horny little devil“
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It is about a devil who comes to taunt three single women. It is an original film I have to say as I have never seen anything quite like it. It is mostly a comedy with strong fantastical elements, but at its core it is supposed to make you laugh and it did make me laugh a couple of times as its humor is quite strong. Most of the lines spoken by Jack’s character and his behavior and seduction scenes were hilarious.
Yes, this is one of the best performances that he has ever given and certainly his most underrated. All three of these actresses are very strong, but he is easily the standout actor here in my book. Pfeiffer is forgettable and I have never been her fan, but Susan Sarandon is very good and Cher was actually a good actress around this period in time which is crazy. And Veronica Cartwright was overrated and over-the-top here.
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I wasn’t so crazy about their characters. Daryl was awesome and the mix of devilish and seductive with flamboyant and eccentric definitely led to a very authentic presence. But the women are not the greatest. They easily fail the Bechdel Test as they never talk about anything other than men and I didn’t mind it much as it is a comedy and that led to many funny scenes, but it was troublesome because the movie somehow presented itself as a feminist picture when in reality it is exactly the opposite.
The Witches of Eastwick is very well directed and it is crazy that this was George Miller’s work as it doesn’t resemble him at all. But he did a nice job with this crazy material. The film is well shot and the special effects are typical 80s effects, but far from terrible.
I loved the first half of the movie as it was sinister in tone and filled with hilarious scene after scene. Except the beginning which was somewhat dull, the whole first half was stellar and very good. However, the movie falls apart after that tennis match between the foursome as the fantasy elements came too late in the game and the battle wasn’t the greatest.
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But it mostly fell apart as it was too slow in its pace and it featured way too many music scenes. Those scenes ruined it for me as they significantly slowed the progress of the film and its storyline. It was a wasted potential as the film could have been much better, but ended up being just solid.
The Witches of Eastwick features a crazy, original storyline, many funny scenes, a great, underrated comedic performance from Jack Nicholson and the first half is terrific, but the second half is slow in its pace and much inferior in plot, the movie is somewhat sexist and it never succeeded as a fantasy as much as it did as a comedy flick.
