Genres

Visitors Review

CD 2012-05-25 12:48:00

Pretty Good Movie

I've been in a bad mood lately so I decided to take the day off of work and go to the movies. I was debating between Stepford Wives and Chronicles of Riddick. Seeing a whole bunch of goth wannabes going into Chronicles I decided on Stepford Wives. The story was a little weak and there were some definite holes but overall I think it was pretty good. I left the movie smiling. Nicole Kidman never ceases to amaze me as an actress and Bette Midler is as great as ever. This is probably the first time I've seen a movie and now want to read the book.

Trawet 2012-05-25 04:20:22

Better than I thought.

If you listen to allthe negative people,you would never go to a movie.It had a lot of funny moments. It is so over the top(But in a good way)that you can't help but be amused. This movie was very entertaining.At least a 7.

Abraham Vionas 2012-05-21 17:58:55

Outstanding in most respects, and entertaining above all.

The problem with this film is that it could have been an absolutemasterpiece... if they'd managed to figure out how they wanted to do therobot/brainwashed women. If you're paying attention during the film you'lleventually realize that the filmmakers obviously couldn't decide whether ornot to go with robots, or with some sort of nano-tech engineered chips beingimplanted in the womens brains. My guess is that the nano-tech chips werewhat they decided on after shooting too many scenes with robot orientedmaterial. My wife has decided that the fact that they couldn't make it oneway or the other gives this film a D grade, but I tend to like it more thanthat. If they would've just gone with the nano-tech chips from the beginningthe film would've been spectacular! The mood, set design, acting, anddialogue were very entertaining... thrilling, comedic...very engrossing. Butat the end of the day you're still left bothered by the obvious fact thatthey reshot some material, but used other material and so it comes off as afilm that isn't pure. I suppose it feels a bit insulting to the intelligence- did they not realize that the public would catch that glaring mistake? Itjust makes me sick to my stomach when I see something like this happen to afilm that could've been amazing. Shame on whomever didn't approve enoughbudget to rewrite and reshoot EvERYTHING that needed to be fixed (to make iteither all robot material, or all nano-chipped material). It's your faultthe film has languished at the box office. In the future, remember that thepublic will catch you EVERY time you try to get away with less than 100%.In closing, if you're in the mood for an imperfect but entertaining filmthen this one should fill the bill nicely.

Lee Eisenberg 2012-05-21 07:27:03

Believe it or not...

More than a remake, the 2004 version of "The Stepford Wives" takes alook at the falsity of our modern society: the women are perfect beyondcredibility and the men are panting nerds - not to mention that whenJoanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) tries to have a career, it turns out tobe rather unpleasant. The original version was almost one step awayfrom a horror movie, but this one is more satirical. And to the extentthat it is a remake, they expand on the original version to make itmore like the 21st century.Although Nicole Kidman gets top billing, my favorite character wasBette Midler, as brassy author Bobbie Markowitz; just listen to some ofher book titles (warning: they're not for the squeamish). Also starringMatthew Broderick as Joanna's husband Walter Cresby, and Glenn Close,Christopher Walken, and Jon Lovitz as some of Stepford's other citizens(you'll probably either laugh or get irked by Glenn Close's commentabout Bette Midler).So what would YOU think of living in Stepford?

2012-05-18 10:04:51

The Stepford Wives Lay an Egg

A few days ago I was delighted to learn The Stepford Wives would be shown on cable TV, but I soon realized I was watching a turkey. The opening scene is a heavy handed parody of the Jerry Springer show, and from that point it's downhill all the way. The plot is weak, the characters inconsistent, and the story incoherent. The production values of casting, costuming and set design are certainly high. But that just makes this movie a pointless, glossy mess.

mstomaso 2012-05-18 06:51:26

Too lightweight for its subject matter

The original film, and the great novel that preceded it are worthy of abetter treatment than this lighthearted, anti-suspenseful, Hollywoodvariety show. What's more, the excellent veteran cast, the catchysoundtrack and the expensive production values could have made thisinto the socially serious, poignant and yet funny contemporarymasterwork it should have been. Instead, we are left with a film whosecampiest moments are clichés and whose point seems to be love conquersall - even the sexism, genderism and masculocentrism still rampant inAmerican Society today! I never expect comedies to do a particularlygood job with continuity and logic, but some of the continuity problemsin this film are really pretty amazing. Plot twists are, after all,supposed to change the COURSE of the plot, not its basic premises. I'mdying to tell you about it, but I won't write a spoiler.Here are the basics: Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick are asuccessful couple whose marriage has been suffering a bit because ofthe stress of their work-lives. Nicole, a TV executive famous forpost-feminist male-bashing shows gets fired for no particular reasonand they couple decides to move away to Stepford, an exclusivecommunity populated by people who seem to have no particular troublesof any kind, or even jobs for that matter. Some of the first thingsMatthew Broderick realizes about Stepford is that all of the women arebeautiful, and everybody is marvelously happy with a few possibleexceptions - his own wife, Bette Midler and a gay liberal whose partnerhas been sucked into republicanism. Predictably, these three conspireto resist the happiness all around them and investigate the mystery ofthe Stepford men's club.I've described the first quarter of the film. Although the central plotis interesting and strong, the lack of even a shred of seriousnessdetracts very heavily from it - even from a comedic point of view. Ifthis film hadn't made me disinterested, the feminist in me would havesimply been angry over the missed opportunity this film represents.Moreover, it is possible to see this film as a justification of the'blame the victim' mentality so often prevalent in contemporaryculture.Most of the cast seems equally unengaged. They sometimes seem to beplaying roles in different films - interacting with each other poorlyand playing their roles with no particular goal in mind. I can onlyfault the director here. Broderick and Kidman are, as usual, verywatchable, but even Nicole seems to be unsure what her character issupposed to be portraying at times. Bette Midler is fine, as are Walkenand Glenn Close. Close was actually, IMO, the show stealer - making thefilm tolerable with her excruciatingly irritating and very dominantpresence.While not a complete travesty, I can not recommend The Stepford Wives.

sean-l-maloney 2012-05-16 09:20:25

Ring Frank Oz and ask for your money back directly

I can normally get a good idea of how a movie is going to be after thefirst 5 minutes, I had this movie nailed in the first 5 secs.Pointless, inane, third rate trash. I'm still in shock that the greatFrank Oz, who made that gem "Bowfinger" has lowered himself to thislevel. I'm equally shocked that Matt Broderick still finds work. Itmakes you wonder, at any stage of production, do those involvedactually sit down and think to themselves 'this is the biggest pile oftrash I've ever helped create?' because someone needs to be told. Iwould of given it a zero rating, but Chris Walken adds a touch of classto the movie and Jon Lovitz wears a fairly cool shirt at some stage. Alemon of a flick.

2012-05-15 23:06:32

unexpectedly disappointed

What can I say to sum this all up...1) Great choice in cast...especially Christopher Walken, but then again he has a charisma that is both spooky and inspiring in every movie2) Not much of a stretch for the talent of this cast to play their parts3) Humor was ok, nothing that made me laugh out loud4) Anti-climatic story if there ever was one5) An ok plot twist at the end6) The late 80's and 90's had comedy sidekicks as the Black man with a smart mouth. This movie is another attempt to change that previous setup to the current trend of the Gay man who is witty and funny as he balks the heterosexual world around him. It just didn't do it for me...not funny in this attempt.Overall my wife and I both felt like we wasted our time with a sub-standard made movie. Not even worth the rental!

jayson-4 2012-04-30 16:39:53

Preposterous mess

If you're going to serve up merely a succession of smartass campy jokes(dotted with a little naive social criticism), you're taking a huge chancewith your audience's patience. If you aspire, more sensibly, to place thejokes within a deeper fable/parable/satire, you have to understand somefundamental rules of storytelling, such as: Your audience will accept theimpossible, but not the improbable. [SPOILER] I, for one, am willing to buythat a guy would and could build a robot wife who also functioned as a cashmachine. But I refuse to believe that she would dispense singles. [ENDSPOILER]Most of the jokes are silly and self-indulgent. The plot makes no sense. Theactors are squashed under the director's and producers' elephantiasis. Go!Enjoy!

2012-04-29 23:28:43

A great movie!

The Stepford Wives is a movie about a town where wives were transformed into perfect women. At first I was skeptical to go see this because it looked so fake. After going to see it however, my opinion changed completely.This movie is a mystereous one as well as a funny one. It contains stars such as Nicole Kidman, Mette Midler, Faith Hill, and Glenn Close who al shine in this movie. I'd reccomend this mpvie to anyone 13 and over because there are some sexual references. I've seen all of the movies coming out this week: This, Garfield, and the Chronicles of Riddick and I'd say this is the best by far!!Final Grade: 4.5/5

Melody Yiu 2012-04-25 04:45:23

high hopes but disappointed

this is one of the film that i have heard about (both goods and bads)and have long-waited to see. The story of "the perfect American town"has always fascinated me and therefore before it came out, due to thestory i had quite some expectation for it. the first part is as what i've expected. a couple living a high-stresslife have decided to move to the suburbs and found the perfect lifeuncomfortable instead of reassuring. the story goes on and they foundout the problem of this town and in the end solving the mystery andhelped other victims.i'm not a professional in the film industry and i cannot spot theproblem in the film right away. i just felt dissatisfied becausealthough i know the ending of the story but i didn't not expect itwould be as straight-forward as that. early on in the story there werealready obvious hints about "stepford wives" being suspicious and theending came to an conclusion without much excitement as it could have.perhaps it's due to the length of the movie, or budget or otherfactors, but as an audience i was disappointed with such a great storyplaying out in a plain and un-amusing way.

george.schmidt 2012-04-24 18:29:14

Flat uninspired remake sucks the life out of the suspense

THE STEPFORD WIVES (2004) ** Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, BetteMidler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Roger Bart, David MarshallGrant, Jon Lovitz, Faith Hill. Flat and uninspired re-imagining of IraLevin's social horror film this time as a comedy misfires onpractically all accounts with Kidman as a type-A TV exec recently firedand post-breakdown is talked into a new start by her well-meaninghusband Broderick to the strangely bucolic town of Stepford,Connecticut where things are not-as-they-seem. Paul Rudnick's stalezingers-laden screenplay adaptation lofts softball jokes at a stalepremise that is sadly dated and if no one knows by now that the womenare robots well wake up and smell the coffee people. (Dir: Frank Oz)

2012-04-22 13:40:43

One Of The Funniest Films of 2004

The Stepford Wives is a clever, fun, and wickedly funny remake! The Movie has an amazing cast in it who you just can't get enough of! They are highly enjoyable in this movie! Nicole Kidman gives a great performance as her role of Joanna Eberhart. The film has a shocking ending as well that is completely different from the novel's ending. A Highly Enjoyable Film!

2012-04-22 00:12:32

D- remake of an A+ story...

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...

creeda1 2012-04-21 03:35:43

Unexpectedly enjoyable

All the comments I heard and read about this film were that it wasabsolutely awful - specially compared to the first version withKatherine Ross. In fact I watched it, because it was the only thing onthe box and was most agreeably surprised. Of course, could be because Ifound the first film quite boring with all the preaching - also I thinkK. Ross is a very bad actress (awfully Sixties). Although the book wasgreat, like all Ira Levin's work.This was just a "light-hearted romp", sending up every cliché in thebook - the TV executive, the big houses in the country, the happyfamilies of what looked like very over-weight children, the rampantconsumerism. To a European, this is in fact what Connecticut looks like(only in parts of course!). Having just come back to a visit to SharonConnecticut, I could empathize with the inhabitants of Stepford.Great cast - Glenn Close as usual looking more intelligent than anyonefor miles around, Nicole Kidman showing a wonderful sense of fun(specially as the last time I saw her she was drooping around the placeas Virginia Woolfe).The transformation was particularly good - much less ghoulish than inthe first version - in keeping with the generally light tone. Threfinal words summed it all up so well: "No talking, keep shopping".

Kryzak 2012-04-20 06:34:45

Awesome-ly funny movie!

While I don't know what the original was like, or what the book's themeswere, the movie I saw was BRILLIANTLY made. There were a coupleinconsistencies in the plot (without spoiling the movie too much, it wasrelated to the nature of the "new" wives), but I treated it as a comedybased on a serious theme of feminism and misogyny. As a comedy, it WORKED! I could not stop laughing throughout the 90 minutes and all the jokes werereally creative and original. THe cast seemed like they were having so muchfun with the movie, and that fun definitely came out of the screen andaffected the audience. I probably missed 25% of the funny lines becausepeople were laughing so hard you can barely hear the dialogue. The pacingwas good, without a slow moment, as well as the acting. Can't say muchabout the directing, as it seemed to be a relatively simple movie tomake.I gave it a 9 out of 10, and am planning on seeing it again when it hits thetheaters this Friday!

2012-04-16 14:57:00

Slap Shtick: Plug in and cook until well over done

THE STEPFORD WIVES is a funky outing that takes to task the dumbing down of the wealthy class. While everyone knows the plot of the original book and 1975 movie, few will recognize the parody that Frank Oz has created. Everything is over-the-top, including performances by such actors as Nicole Kidman, Glenn Close, Matthew Broderick, Jon Lovitz, Roger Bart and Christopher Walken - each of whom seems to be out to do parodies of their usual 'roles'. But if you like movies like Practical Magic and Rat Race and Cheaper by the Dozen, then this expensive bit of fluff may please. Just don't expect insights into feminism, male dominance psyche, or the (now obligatory) inclusion of gays into the township of perfection called Stepford. Entertaining for what it is. Grady Harp, November 2004

edwardrevans 2012-04-16 05:50:13

Script rewrites ?

OK, So I saw this on DVD and had a look at the Deleted and Extendedscenes which were quite revealing. You see the extra scenes clearlyshow the Women of Stepford are Robots or Cyborgs, which is onlyslightly hinted at in the movie itself. So its seems to me that theoriginal intention was to cut the movie like this in the first placeyet they didn't this made me think were their budget constraints as Ican't be bothered to watch it with commentary. Anyway wouldn't affectthe film in itself as its nothing special and Miss Kidman is muchbetter than this take "To Die For" as an example of her finest hour,though the blame is not at her door, the whole casting is wrong, maybeunknowns would have been better.

Katie Hanson 2012-04-13 05:26:12

A fun light-hearted comedy!

This movie is fun to watch and get a laugh or two from. Now don't gointo this movie expecting it to win any awards because its one of thosemovies that you'll leave having a good feeling, not one that you'llremember forever. Nicole Kidman and Bette Midler are a riot with theside comments which steal the movie. Now I've never seen the originalor read the book. However I do know that this movie is supposed to MAKEFUN of the original movies. Its a comedy folks, you're not supposed totake it seriously or anything. This movie is a lot of fun you'll enjoyit alone, with the girlfriends, or with the family. A defitentmust-see.

2012-04-12 15:20:57

"Could we get away and start over"

I feel like it was all my fault, since I have heard from people I trust that this movie was pretty lame, but I could not resist. The cast was impressive, and the novel by Ira Levin is excellent, so it was hard to believe that the movie could be that bad. I am sad to acknowledge that I was totally wrong; the script is absolutely dreadful, and the experience of watching this film is almost pure agony. The only aspect I think deserves praise is the performance of Bette Midler, who does as much as she can, considering the rest of the aspects of this movie. Midler is the only reason why I am giving this product two stars instead of one.Joanna Eberhart (Kidman) is one of the hardest-working people in the TV environment; she is at the top of her career and feels great about it. But during a company celebration, she is confronted by the "star" of one of the network's reality shows. He tries to shoot her and fails, but before his attempt he was successful in killing his wife and the five boyfriends she met during the show. The network, fearing a monumental lawsuit, decides to let Joanna go, condemning her to be a housewife.Walter (Broderick) is Joanna's husband, and was working below her in the same network at the time, but showing solidarity with his wife, resigns and decides to move to Stepford in order to start over. In this community everything is perfect, the gardens are immaculate, the pets are mechanic, the toilets flush automatically, and the women...Well, what can I say? They all dress in the same style, have perfect bodies and wear flawless make-up at all times. There is clearly something wrong with Stepford, but Joanna cannot point out exactly what the problem is.Reading over my description of the movie, I once again think that the result cannot be as bad as I thought, but it really is. I learned one thing though, in the future I will heed the warnings from the people I respect before choosing what to watch, especially if they are as clear as they were in this case.