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"I, the Devil, and my offices in purgatory, hell and Los Angeles, guarantee you anything you desire in exchange for one piddling little soul."

The reason the Farrely brothers (There's Something About Mary, Kingpin) are such successful comic filmmakers is that they never backpedal. They admit that their movies are raunchy, racy fun and plunge head-first into their stories. To think what they could have done with Bedazzled, Harold Ramis's half-hearted comedy that teeters on the border between adult humor and a preschool morality lesson. It's disappointing that the movie feels a need to justify its PG-13 rating; it might have made a wonderful R-rated comedy.

Brendan Fraser, who is getting better with every movie, plays Elliot Richards, a lonely cubicle worker who is madly in love with Allison (Frances O'Connor) a co-worker who doesn't seem to know he exists. Elliot is one of those people who wants to be liked so badly that he frightens off everyone he talks to. You can't shake him; everywhere his "friends" go, there he is.

One day at the pool hall, Elliot is accosted by a jaw-droppingly gorgeous woman who insists that she is the devil. She will give him seven wishes in return for his soul which, according to her, he doesn't even really need ("Have you ever seen your soul?"). Seven wishes, as Elliot soon finds out, means seven chances to get his dream scenario right. If he doesn't like what he sees, he has a pager on which he can dial 666 and be brought back to reality. And as the film's trailer cheerfully exclaims, the devil's not gonna give him a chance in hell.

Elliot wishes to be married to Allison and be very rich and powerful. Next thing he knows, he is a Columbian drug lord whose employees are on the brink of a mutiny. To make things even worse, Allison hates him. It doesn't take him long to realize that he wants out.

His next wish doesn't work out either. He asks to be the most emotionally sensitive guy in the world and to be dating Allison. He finds himself crying everytime he sees the sunset and before long, Allison is running off with a couple of jocks on the beach.

Things go on in that vein, as Elliot samples all aspects of life, from a charming intellectual who turns out to be gay right as he is about to score with Allison to an 8-foot tall basketball player who is, uh, underequipped in a crucial area. This is pretty funny stuff and it's helped by a hilarious Elizabeth Hurley performance. The British model-turned-actress is best known in this country for her role as Austin Power's girl-toy but should earn a new level of recognition with Bedazzled. She makes a wonderful Satan, appropriately self-confident and gleefully malevolent under a helpful interior.

But after over an hour of comic mayhem, the movie quickly deflates with an ending unworthy of Veggie Tales. Elliot has a conversation with God, who just happens to be posing as a prison inmate (I am not making this up), finds a loophole in his contract and proves himself to be a good person, worthy of going to heaven, and so on. Bedazzled has, for its first 60 minutes, been an acerbic, funny, raunchy comedy and its saccharine ending is a complete contradiction in tone. The result is phony and out of place.

For a film about the devil, Bedazzled's script isn't nearly devilish enough. If I want moral lessons, I'll go watch Sesame Street, thanks. This movie needed less preaching and more punch.