Bewitched with Hollywood Remakes

So I saw the Will Ferrell/Nicole Kidman remake of BEWITCHED, and I have to say, I was reasonably surprised. Now, I did go in with exceedingly low expectations, and that always helps, but I was glad to see a more intelligent take on the idea of a remake. For those of you who seem to miss the ten minutes before other movies, i.e. trailers and commercials and who have been living under a rock, the concept is this: Will Ferrell plays a former A list actor who has fallen to the C list after several bombs (somewhat like Ben Affleck) and agrees to 'star' in a new television reamke of the old Bewitched series. Because he doesn't want to be upstaged, he convinces them to hire a nobody to play the witch, and stumbles upon a real witch (Nicole Kidman) who he hires immediately. The set up works well and the performances are sparkling - you can't help but feel sorry for Will the whole time, he tries so hard to make the show about his character, and he tries to impress his new co-star. Kidman, of course, makes you absolutely fall for her whenever she wants (somethig I've been victim to since To Die For). The whole problem with the movie lies in the third act, which involves the inievitable break up and get back together of the on-screen couple. Its fine, its just really cliche and the first 70 % of the movie deserved more. Another issue is the appearance of characters from original series and whether or not they are real witches (and thus were in the fifties) or if they are being imagined by the new series actors (and thus they are both going crazy). WHen an important plot point is dependent on one of these late arrivals (Uncle Arthur) it all but destroys the momentum of the movie. It really would be far more meaniful if Will Ferrell's characters had been able to come to some of the same conclusions on his own with out any Deus Ex Machina. My final complaint is the abandonment of the minor characters - the subplot with Michael Caine (Kidman's warlock father) and Shirley MacClain (Another real witch that just happens to be playing the witch aunt in the new series) is never resolved. And the most interesting minor characters, Kidman's neighbor and Ferrell's agent (Kristin Chenoweth and Jason Schwartzman) completely disappear in the third act? Are there twenty minuies of this movie somewhere on the cutting floor, or was it just really sloppy writing? We'll wait till the DVD comes out to be sure, but till then, I recommend this movie for laughs, dates, and Kidman oogling. And for Michael Caine fanatics (Though he's been a bit of a whore lately, popping up in every movie that seems to be released). I give it a solid B.