"The Witches of Eastwick" always had been a movie that I enjoyed watching, ever since my childhood. It's some good quality entertainment, while it actually isn't even all that great as a movie.
Main problem with this movie is that it actually as a very poor story, that actually make this movie a very pointless one as well. The concept of it is actually filled with plenty of potential but the story does far too little with it. You definitely should expect some more fireworks and magic from a movie that features the devil himself as one of your main characters. There just isn't enough happening really in this movie but yet the movie really still manages to work out as some great entertainment.
Seriously, without all of its fine, well known actors, this movie would had been a totally bad and pointless one to watch. It really are all of the actors and their dynamics together. They give this movie so much and are the reason why the movie throughout remains such a perfectly watchable one, even when really not an awful lot is going on. The characters and actors really manage to keep things going and interesting. I hope the casting director received some sort of bonus afterward, since brining Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, Cher and Jack Nicholson all together in one movie turned out to be pure gold. You can of course also never go wrong with having Jack Nicholson playing the devil.
It's pretty unique for any sort of movie to feature 4 main characters, that each share an equal amount of screen time and importance to the movie and its story. You might start picking sides with one of them after a while but this is no real problem and the movie does a good job at making each and every character important, without that ever going at the expense of another.
They even managed to let Susan Sarandon look somewhat attractive in this, which also really was an important aspect for the movie. It was important for all 3 female leads to be equally attractive, or else the entire aspect of the 1 guy going for- and living with 3 women wouldn't had worked out that convincing. It also comes across as convincing that the 3 leading ladies remain friends throughout the entire movie, despite everything they go through and all fall for the same guy. It's really thanks because of their acting skills but also really because they all shared some great chemistry together, as if they were all already good friends for years, before doing this film.
You could perhaps also really thank director George Miller for this, as well as the movie its fine dialog. Director George Miller did not only manage to keep things going and interesting, despite of its lacking story, he also managed to make the movie, despite everything, such an enjoyable one.
It's a movie with a light and pleasant sort of atmosphere. You can tell this is a movie made purely for entertainment and not for any awards. It's a movie with plenty of laughs in it and some enjoyable (supporting) solid characters. I miss this sort of entertainment. The sort of entertainment Spielberg also used to make earlier in his career, for instance.
Still story-wise, the movie is a bit of a mess and I'm pretty sure there were lots of scenes left on the cutting room floor. That would explain so much as to why sometimes seemingly random stuff is happening in this movie and why some characters suddenly change appearance.
But there really is plenty of other stuff to compensate for this, next to the earlier mentioned acting performances and dialog. The movie for instance also features some pretty good early special effects and a nice musical score by John Williams.
All in all this remains some good entertainment to watch, despite of everything.
7/10
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