daniel-594-598755 DIRECTION: 1/10 -/- SCREENPLAY: 3/10 -/- VISUALS: 5/10 -/- STORY: 5/10The movie itself reminds me of 'Bedazzled' more than Faust. It's the same base story with a very bad selection of actors. The ACTORS are great normally, but this is clearly not their role. Miss Love Hewitt and Mr. Hopkins were all right, but they definitely won't name this movie as their favorite. I could also tell who THE DIRECTOR was before checking it (Alec Baldwin of course). He is too busy looking handsome and that kind of ruins his screenplay. I usually like his acting but this was dreadful. He made his own character go out with hot young chicks, the Devil's contract was a kiss and a lovemaking, I mean come on, at least don't be this pathetic as an old man. :(The STORY itself is a bit weird but not so bad, the side stories however are much worse, we only meet the secondary characters once or twice, we don't really know what kind of people they are, we usually only see Mr. Baldwin struggling, crying, smiling, yelling, confused... so the characters were really not detailed.I would love to read the book or watch a remake with a REAL DIRECTOR and with a better actor for the main character. Was a real disappointment for me, I have lost all my remaining respect for Mr. Baldwin.

Robert J. Maxwell You can't help wondering how many times this story has been told in print, on stage, and in film. Weren't there independent redintegrations of this Medieval plot by Marlowe and Goethe? This version comes to us from Steven Vincent Benet and Archibald MacLeash, updated to the current time. It's entertaining still but all very familiar.Alec Baldwin is a luckless, penniless, sexless unpublished author who just can't catch a break like his college Dan Aykroyd, who has written a highly successful novel, "A Feeling of Loss." All he has are a few fellow sufferers like Barry Miller, who is always willing to tell Baldwin the truth about his writing.An agent, Anthony Hopkins, tells him to write better but Baldwin is going berserk. Back in his shabby apartment he cries out that he'd sell his soul to succeed. Enter Jennifer Love Hewitt as a sexy devil. She gives him the success he pines for. Cabs stop magically to pick him up out of a crowd. An editor, Kim Cattrall, reads his manuscript and decides its worth a first printing of 100,000. That's a lot. You're lucky to get 5,000. But she insists on a few changes. Baldwin agrees, even though the alterations turn his work into the kind of trash that sells. It begins with the title, "A Loss of Feeling." Of course it's a ripoff of Aykroyd's book, "A Feeling of Loss," but that's the point. There follow a number of sequels. "A Feeling of Greater Loss," or something, winding up with "A Certain Numbness In the Extremities." That's pretty funny.Alas, there is a long courtroom scene at the end in which Hopkins defends Baldwin and Hewitt is the prosecutor. The trial is a fantasy. The jury consists of departed writers like Ernest Hemingway and Dorothy Parker. I don't know how this scene was originally written but here it comes across as maundering and uninventive. "This is the world God gave us," Hewitt orates. Smooth violins in the background tell us that this is all very important, in case we didn't get it. I think it's mush. "Death -- well, death gives us a chance to sum up our lives." Baldwin directed this and there's nothing wrong with his work, either as director or actor. Anthony Hopkins is a remarkable actor. He convinces us with such little effort, even when the lines he's forced to read are idiotic. Hewitt is a bit of an embarrassment among the pros. She looks and sounds like a pretty young girl in a high school production. It's hard to pin down just where she goes wrong, but, by contrast, we can check out Kim Cattrall in the part of the shallow and sexy editor. Hewitt looks cute, while Cattrall projects a sleek kind of professionalism.I kind of enjoyed the film except for the last twenty minutes when it bogged down into seriousness. It should have remained the up-tempo screwball comedy that it started out as. Frank Capra would have done wonders with it back in the 30s.

ganesh I went for this movie believing it had good ratings. Firstly, it is ridiculous that they're releasing a movie originally made in 2001, seven years later in 2008 here in India. Everything in the movie looks dated. Even for 2001 the movie looks like its been made on a shoe string budget. There is a scene where a taxi hits a man to elaborate how low budget you can get. Anthony Hopkins doesn't seem to know what he is doing in the film. He ends up giving a long monologue towards the end. If the film had bright sparks during that scene, I missed it as I was sleeping on my seat. Nothing about Jennifer Love Hewitt resembles a Devil. She wears ill-fitting trite clothes and scowls at random kids. As for Alec Baldwin a scene where he goes to meet Webster for the first time is not to be missed. What a waste of money! As Anthony Hopkins rightly put it, "Go back home and write better!"

aaronia1 I happened to be looking at the reviews and noticed one blatantly negative comment from an editor who worked on the original trailer for this film. I too saw the original version and it did leave a lot to be desired. However, there were two more versions, one after Baldwin abandoned ship and the last one just before it was sold to Bob Yari. I can definitely say that the final cut -- which is the one that's coming out next year -- is by far the best!!! The latest version is a half hour shorter and a great editing job by whoever did the work. Anothony Hopkins was called in to do some extra voice-overs and the end result is that this film really rocks!! There's a great song that was written by one of the producers of the film (Michael Gordon) which I hope they use for the opening song. You can listen to the song and see lots of stuff about this film at mowefilms.com.This is a classic story which won an Academy Award back in the 40's and I think it's got a shot at "Best Song" or "Best Screenplay" if it comes out in the theaters at the right time. Anyway, see the film and judge for yourself. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.