Customer Reviews

The Stepford Wives

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(50)
2 star:		(47)
1 star:		(78)

 

 

Thank God I got this from the library, Free of charge, didnt buy or rent or go to see this in a theatre. I loved the original Stepford wives, it was funny and creepy and mirrored that 70's fear of women becoming "robot" housewives instead of being liberated. This version made no sense, they werent supposed to be robots, or were they? they had chips implanted into thier own bodies? which one was it? They had boobs that inflated, money come out of thier mouths, they didnt burn. BUT at the end it was implied that it was just some microchips in the brain that made them act differently. Were there two scripts that just got combined and no one checked the continuity? Nicole Kidman, poorly cast, Matthew Broderick, poorly cast, well, the whole movie was poorly cast. It wasnt funny AT ALL. The "remote controls" for the women were a bit like the "toys" I have seen in X-rated stores. Even the 1987 Made for TV movie "the stepford children" was better written AND acted than this flop.

This is the first movie review I have ever done on here...im normally a music reviewer on here. But this time I just can't keep quiet. I have read 5 Ira Levin books, and he is one of my favorite writers. So when I discovered that THE STEPFORD WIVES was made into a movie, I had to go rent it. I LOVED IT, the simplicity of the filming and the acting just captured the essence of Levin's story. Just like Rosemary's Baby. I was equally excited when I discovered that it was being remade again with the modern cast...after all, I'm a young guy and I thought, cool, now people will be able to see this great flick that I have loved for years.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. The remake sucks. It has the main character, Joanna, as this feminist ultra career oriented freak and it really fails to capture the beauty of the original with Katherine Ross, and without a doubt, does not deserve to have Ira Levin's name anywhere in the credits...its a SHAM. Don't buy it. They ruined this great tale!!! Get the original, or ROSEMARY'S BABY which is available for a lot less on here...

First, I'm not in the habit of panning films. My worst criticism has always been "It's worth seeing, but I wouldn't buy it." This remake of the Stepford Wives has set a new standard. Don't even rent it.

I do not know what happened - whether they ran out of money for SFX or the stars demanded more of the budget than they'd counted on, but whatever it was, it cost the movie.

Basically, there are 2 ways to view this story Scary or Funny. They failed at both. The book and original movie were spooky and disturbing. Frank Oz set out to make the remake a comedy, but failed. There is no continuity or consistency. Are the Wives Robots, or brainwashed women? Either could be true. One of the deleted scenes shows Bette Midler turn into Inspector Gadget (interesting, since Mathew Broderick is in the film, too) sprouting a variety of kitchen utensils from her fingers, and finally dropping a lawn mower from her butt, which she then rides out into the yard to cut the grass. It was both disturbing and funny, and there was no doubt that she was a robot. So they cut the scene. I think they suddenly realized halfway through the production that they wanted a happy ending, and that wasn't possible if the human wives had been killed and replaced with automatons. So they cut the scenes where their mechanical nature showed, but not all of them - there's still enough enough glimpses of Faith Hill giving off sparks, and serving as an ATM machine. The possibilities of the robots had great comic potential, which was abandoned. Another cut scene had the husbands urging Mathew Broderick to get the cigarette lighter option - "You'll be glad you did..."

Bottom Line: The Remake of "The Stepford Wives" isn't funny, and it isn't scary, it's just sad.

Ira Levin's famous suburban Gothic THE STEPFORD WIVES already has so much black comic potential built into its premise that making this remake of the much loved 1975 film into an all-out comedy was a mistake from the get-go. So was assembling the creative team and the cast: director Frank Oz and screenwriter Paul Rudnick are hardly known for the light touch this approach would have required, and nor are Bette Midler and Jon Lovitz (in important supporting roles). Glenn Close and Christopher Walken also seem oddly chosen for a comedy, but the worst miscasting is Nicole Kidman as the heroine, Joanna Eberhart. With her wafer-thin arms and torso and flawless, highly polished skin, she hardly makes the ideal choice to be the mouthpiece for accepting human imperfection.

Ira Levin's cautionary novel, "The Stepford Wives", was a fascinating fable of the ultimate male backlash to feminism; in 1975, director Bryan Forbes turned the novel into a chilling variation of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", as innocent wives are substituted by zombie-like robots, their husbands bonding in a smugly evil male cult. Unsettling and ambiguous, the fate of the actual women is left to the viewer's imagination, making it far more frightening than a pat resolution would have been.

This concept was apparently lost on Paramount, DreamWorks, and Frank Oz, who wavered between camp and black comedy heavy-handedness, in this 2004 remake. Scripted by Paul Rudnick, the women are no longer normal, sympathetic wives, but high-powered execs, with apparent agendas against men, and husbands little more than doorstops. Their fate, to become blond-haired sex-slave bimbos locked in 'June Cleever' mode, while their idiot spouses adjust their breast sizes by remote control, and swap the wives for favors, demeans both men and women, and even offers an out-of-place jab at homosexuals, as a funny gay spouse is turned into a right-wing religious zealot politician (how an openly gay couple would ever be even allowed in this community is ignored).

While spoofing the earlier film isn't, in itself, a bad idea, no one involved in this project apparently had a clear vision of what they were aiming at, so continuity and logic are sadly missing. As other critics have rightly noted, the status of the wives waivers between being robots and being micro-chipped and brainwashed humans, making the Nicole Kidman 'template' body, and finale 'revelation' of community leader Christopher Walken's actual status as ridiculous as an ATM-spewing wife, and remote controls to adjust emotional responses and breast sizes, labeled, conveniently, with each wife's name. All the pretty, golden-hued settings, and Matthew Broderick's emergence as a 'good guy with a heart' who saves the day can't compensate for the quagmire of a plot.

The real shame of it all is that the potential for a good film hovers over the proceedings, just out of reach, and some really fine performances are all for naught. Glenn Close gives a strangely sympathetic twist to the film's villain, Walken is the most engaging (and youthful) he's been in years, Bette Midler and Roger Bart are both hilarious, Jon Lovitz is at his silly best, and Nicole Kidman again proves herself more than adept at comedy, and portraying American women. Matthew Broderick seems to be making a career of playing milquetoast males (Ferris Bueller, where are you?), and for 'eye and ear candy', nothing can quite match Country Music sex symbol Faith Hill's orgasmic moans, and cup-size changes. All this, lost in a truly misguided film.

What a waste!

This is an incredibly BAD movie!!

Other reviewers have discussed the plot and details, so I won't repeat them.

I just wondered who wrote the script: 100 monkeys randomly typing on computers?

This was one movie that I simply could NOT watch to completion. I hope that it did NOT make a profit - that would only encourage its producers and director.

The newest incarnation of Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives" is first rate until about ¾ of the way through...then in a mad dash to end the thing, all logic is thrown out the door. At that point, what it really looks and feels like is, is that about 10-15 minutes of the movie was lopped off in order to come in under an hour and a half; which is too bad, because up to then, "The Stepford Wives" really has a lot of interesting things to say about man-woman relationships and marriage in the new millennium.
This new version even incorporates a fully accepted, by Stepford society, Gay couple: though one could argue that one of the partners is too gay to be true. Be that as it may, Bette Midler as a neo-hippy novelist (Bobbi Markowitz) and Nicole Kidman as a whacked out former major TV network President (Joanna Eberhart) are ironic and funny-as-hell.
But what happens ¾ of the way through? Who knows? Maybe the DVD version will give us the full version and fill in the gaping hole at the conclusion for us. As it is in the theaters now, "The Stepford Wives" is funny but woefully incomplete: finishing just short of making a complete and coherent comment about marriage-american-style in this year of 2004.

The original Stepford Wives was a suspense, filled with a "Big Brother" feel of erie similarity; a comment on suburbia and modern values. This is a poorly made re-make, played for laughs. It has no moral center. In fact, it's so over-the-top, it is as if the producers of this trash just hired the stars to go through the motions, no acting requried, and the expression of the main characters is about at the same level as the robotic wives. Who cares who's replaced? I am still waiting for Hollywood to stop re-making films that were decent to begin with --or has everyone forgotten how poorly made imitations of Charade and Sabrina were?

The director couldn't make a decision on what to do with this movie so instead they made the movie non-commital and confusing. Pick a direction and go with it.

The question I was left with is, "Are the woman robots or are they real women that have chips inplanted to control their behaviors?" Apparently, the director also doesn't know the answer to this question because the movie waffles back and forth between both plots. I could elaborate more on how both plots are peppered throughout the movie, but to do so would give away scenes. Not that I think anybody should waste their time watching this swill, but if you do then I don't want to diminish the experience by giving away specific parts of the movie.

In summary, you would have to be brain dead to miss the huge holes this movie has in it. You can watch it, but do it realizing that you'll never get that 92 minutes of your life back.

If you liked the the original 1975 version starring Katherine Ross, you will probably have the same opinion I have about this new version starring Nicole Kidman. It's the WORST ever! It reminded me of a parody sketch (gone wrong) with Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman.

Three great talents, Nicole Kidman, Christopher Walken and Bette Midler all wasted!