Customer Reviews

She-Devil [VHS]

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This has to be one of my favorite movies from the 80's. Watch out, when Ruth Patchett (played by the queen of comedy Roseanne) gets ticked off she can cause a lot of damage (and laughs!!!)!! Her worthless excuse of a husband Bob (Ed Begley Jr.) is at the center of Ruth's rage in this comedy about revenge. Roseanne's character learns that she is better than whatever her no-good husband thinks of her, and she sets out to prove him wrong and learns how to start a new life along the way. Meryl Streep's (Mary Fisher) character is totally over-the-top and the perfect addition to this already campy classic. Mary Fisher is a cross between Joan Crawford and Jackie Collins.

There are so many funny scenes in this movie. Perhaps the funniest is when Bob drives Ruth home from the party in the beginning of the film. Poor Ruth has to sit in the back seat of their two-door car while Mary Fisher sits in the front next to her husband! And the bum doesn't even have the common decency to drive Ruth to the door, instead dropping her off a block away from the house! It was also a hoot when Ruth drops off the kids (Andy & Nicolette) at Miss Fisher's because "the children would like to see their father." And of course we can't forget Mary Fisher's kooky mother. Sylvia Mills plays the senior Mrs. Fisher with such comedy and finesse; Mary Fisher's mother almost takes as much joy out of wrecking Mary's perfect lifestyle as Ruth does, almost! And finally, I can't leave out the wonderful character Hooper played by Linda Hunt. Hooper is a dowdy old nurse-maid that helps Ruth start the business Vesta Rose for the harried and hopeless women of New York.

Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep battle it out in the wacky comedy SHE-DEVIL.

Mary Fisher (Streep) is a romance novelist who lives in a pink palace by the sea. Ruth Patchett (Barr) is a frumpy housewife with a bad attitude. They have one thing in common - Bob( Ed Begley Jr) - Mary's lover and Ruth's husband!

Ruth decides to get even with her louse of a spouse, so she blows up the house, and frames Bob for embezzlement. Along the way Ruth also digs up Mary's mother in a decaying nursing home, and decides a "family reunion" is needed....!

Based on the novel "The Life and Loves of the She-Devil" by Fay Weldon, this is a charming film. If you loved DEATH BECOMES HER you will flip over SHE-DEVIL.

Also starring Linda Hunt and Sylvia Miles.

Rosanne Barr, plays Ruth Patchette, a housewife, who enjoys reading romance novels written by Mary Fisher, played by the talented Meryl Streep. When she and her husband, Bob, come across Mary accidently, things take a hilariously and adventurous turn for the wife. The writer she so idolized, is having an affair with her husband. Her husband leaves her and the children for greener pastures. Rather than feeling sorry for herself, she purposely burns down her house (a cue taken by Waiting to Exhale) and sends the children to Mary Fisher's estate to live with her and Bob.
Ruth goes off to find Mary's mother in revenge for destroying her marriage and thwarting her romantic notions of love and marriage. She sets out to a nursing home finding the Mrs. Fisher and sending her to live with Mary wreaking havoc for her ungrateful daughter and adopted family. Mary's world is no longer filled with beautiful dreams as her novels. Her dreamy world is like that of Ruth's as a dreaded wife and mother. Ruth further embarks on building a business that will help empower women and bring down her husband.
Every wife and mistress should watch "She-Devil". Rosanne's performance as a wife scorned hits close to home and Meryl's portrayal of a mistress to not expect a bed of roses and for both to not settle for less. This movie is hilarious to watch as the transformation lives are wrecked and resurrected.

She-Devil a great dark comedy about revenge. BoB (Ed Begley Jr.) is bored of his blah wife who just can't seem to do anything right...so he decides to have an affair with romance novelist Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep). He leaves suburbia, his kids and wife, so Ruth (Roseanne) decides to show him how bad life can really be. After burning down the house, dumping the kids at the pretty pink palace by the sea and breaking Mary Fisher's mom out of a nursing home, she and a friend start an employment agency to help women in similar situations. By placing the right women in the right jobs, Bob soon learns hell hath no fury like a woman scorned when he ends up with nothing and no one, all because he crossed the wrong woman.

She-Devil is among the few dark comedies that gained popularity in the late 80's early 90's period. It has been closely associated with such classics as Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her and War Of The Roses starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny Devito). She Devil is based on a novel by the same name. Roseanne Barr stars as the irrepressible Ruth Patchett, Ed Begley Jr as her cheating husband and a delightful Meryl Streep as his mistress romance novelist Mary Fisher. The captivating premise revolves around Ruth's plot to exact revenge on her unfaithful husband. We are generally sympathetic with her (or at least I was when I saw the film) because she truly does not deserve such a fallible and inconsiderate husband especially after being good to him and raising his children. Roseanne steals the show as she takes revenge step by step straight out of her list of wicked deeds. The script and dialogue is witty and packed with humor. Memorable characters further enhance this black comedy, characters such as Mary Fisher's elderly mother who dislikes her daughter for selfishly shutting her out of her life and putting her in the care of an old folks home to which she later avenges by blabbing to a sleazy tabloid that Mary Fisher was a promiscious woman. Ed Begley Jr. is quite good as the cheating husband who later tires of living with his mistress/mother to his kids replacement Mary Fisher and takes on a new mistress his own office secretary. He is involved in fraudulent scams and eventually Ruth makes it possible for him to be imprisoned. He does seem to have learned his lesson by the end of the film. You will like this enjoyable comedy with suspenseful and dark sounding music (there is even a section whose notes resemble the Night On Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky and the concluding Elvis song Devil in Disguise with the thematic lines that best describe Ruth....''She walks like an angel, she talks like an angel..but she's the Devil in disguise". Also noteworthy is the strong message at the end which seems to be about empowerment of women..closing scene has Roseanne walking down a street with a tremendous crowd of women.. no doubt women who have taken upon themselves to take charge of their lives and refused to be victimized (by cheating husbands, failed marriages, abuse, what have u. This is a great film and among my favorites.

If you like John Waters pictures, this is the movie you need. "She-Devil" is a killer Comedy with hilarious and hysterical performances by Roseanne, Linda Hunt, Meryl Streep and more. Be ready to laugh, "She-Devil" is pure fun.

This movie deserves so much more credit than it has received in the past. I hope alot of new Roseanne fans will take the time to check out this movie. Meryl Streep is amazingly talented as a comedic actress...Just watch this movie and see. Roseanne is Vesta Rose. A nice lady who has always let the world step all over her. Sometimes when you push people too far they may have a sneaky way settling the score. She-Devil is fantastic.

Roseanne may be the star of She Devil, but she couldn't do it if the other characters you love to see get their due in this movie didn't hold their own.

Roseanne does what she does best in She Devil: Lots of warts-and-all womanhood and an unswerving drive for self preservation, and she does it with her special Roseanne flair. Many women may secretly identify with her awkwardness in the pre-betrayal scenes, the perfect character-building for the intensity to come.

Meryl Streep's elegant, intentionally overacted portrayal of the other woman is hilarious, with her prima donna character. Ed Begley, Jr. makes a great philandering worm.

Lots of comedic details and surprises that weren't in the PBS miniseries make this a fun escape.

this is a hilarious movie for all ages and all humour types. anyone who says this movie isnt good has not seen this movie. roseann barr and meryl streep are genuis together in this somewhat dark humoured comedy.
a must have for any DVD collection.

Despite hilarious performances from Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, and Ed Begley, Jr., this film adaptation of Fay Weldon's "The Life and Loves of a She-Devil" is sure to disappoint viewers who were lucky enough to catch the earlier British mini-series based on the same novel. The problem here is with the script, which doesn't really develop Roseanne's character as fully as it might. In the television adaptation, Ruth Patchett was an even more pathetic and disempowered character whose plot of vengeance against her cheating husband and his mistress was carried out with a certain sense of reluctance and a twinge of regret. This extra shading made Ruth more sympathetic and the comedy much, much darker. Here the tone is lighter, sometimes veering off course into slapstick, such as the speeded-up sequence in which Roseanne and Linda Hunt remodel the building that will become their place of business.

Still, as noted earlier, the cast is uniformly excellent. Meryl Streep has a field day playing a manipulative homewrecking she-wolf dressed in (pink) lamb's clothing, and Roseanne is a hoot as the hopelessly frumpy housewife who finally decides she's mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore. Ed Begley, Jr., completes this unholy trio as the unlikely object of both women's desire. Indeed, a lot of the fun comes from the incongruity of casting these three actors in the same movie.

The DVD offers a crisp widescreen video transfer and generally excellent sound, and includes the Original Theatrical Trailer. Definitely worth a look for the performances, but do keep your eye out for the mini-series, which hopefully will be released on DVD sometime in the future.