A Frankenstein's monster of a movie: clumsy, patched together from parts that don't align properly, desperate to be loved, destined to be chased by mobs with pitchforks -- those will be the critics -- until it stumbles into its grave.
The Stepford Wives (2004)
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Reviews Counted:160
Fresh:42
Rotten:118
Average Rating:4.6/10
Consensus: In exchanging the chilling satire of the original into mindless camp, this remake has itself become Stepford-ized.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sexual content, thematic material and language
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jun 11, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $59,341,993
Synopsis: Based on a book by Ira Levin which satirizes the roles of 1950s housewives, this is a remake of the 1975 film adaptation. Director Frank Oz presents a dramatic reworking of the horror classic,... Based on a book by Ira Levin which satirizes the roles of 1950s housewives, this is a remake of the 1975 film adaptation. Director Frank Oz presents a dramatic reworking of the horror classic, putting a totally over-the-top slant on the story that gives it true comedic value. In the early 21st century, a fast-paced Manhattan couple, Joanna (Nicole Kidman) and Walter (Matthew Broderick), both work for a major television network. While she is a leader and breadwinner in producing reality shows, he is a mere middle-management type. So when Joanna has a nervous breakdown, and Walter takes command, he's happy to find that for once in his life she's not stealing his fire. This sentiment is only asserted by the boys club that welcomes him when they move to the "perfect" town of Stepford, Connecticut. There, the women have been transformed by their husbands into a totally submissive, near-robotic state in which they are blissfully happy doing housework and looking pretty, and are totally compliant to their men. With Claire (Glenn Close) and Mike (Christopher Walken) leading this web of weirdness, Joanna and her only normal friend, Bobbie (Bette Midler), race to solve the mystery before they too become Stepford Wives. [More]
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Jon Lovitz, Faith Hill, Roger Bart, David Marshall Grant, Lorri Bagley
Director: Frank Oz
Director: Frank Oz
Screenwriter: Paul Rudnick
Producer: Scott Rudin, Donald De Line, Edgar J. Scherick, Gabriel Grunfeld
Composer: David Arnold
Studio: Paramount Pictures
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Release:
Jun 30, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- NTSC
- Keep Case
- Widescreen - 1.78
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - French
- Dolby Digital Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
- Deleted/Extended Scenes
- Audio Commentary: Frank Oz - Director
- Bloopers: Gag Reel
Featurette:
- 1. A PERFECT WORLD: THE MAKING OF THE STEPFORD WIVES
- 2. STEPFORD: A DEFINITION
- 3. STEPFORD: THE ARCHITECTS
- 4. THE STEPFORD WIVES
- 5. THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS
Trailers:
- 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
- 2. Bonus Trailer
Interactive Features:
- Scene Access
- Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
Reviews for The Stepford Wives
The Stepford Wives has been Stepfordized into a big-budget, star-heavy commodity, complete with computer effects and not-so-subliminal product placements.
Audiences that find themselves laughing at first will likely be fidgeting as the pic drifts toward a peculiar if oddly predictable climax, requiring -- much like the Stepford women -- that brains be checked at the door.
After a promising beginning and wayward middle, Stepford pulls itself together for a snappy finale.
As a clone of a movie about clones, The Stepford Wives leaves out too much of the sinister nature of the original, and doesn't add quite enough new humor to be wholly satisfying.
At its best this is a CQ (as in chuckle quietly) comedy rather than an LOL (as in laugh out loud) affair.
All the efforts of director Frank Oz and writer Paul Rudnick to make the story funny feel slightly desperate and very strained.
This film is like me asking a woman out on date. It's trying very hard and seems to be on the verge of success, but it ends in disaster no matter how earnest the approach.
Oz has made an interesting -- and entertaining -- choice. Instead of updating the story to make it more credible, he has gone the other way: milking its passé alarmism for laughs.
Plenty of broad comedy and scenarios that are as vacant as the title characters.
The new Stepford Wives, with its chocolate-box visual style, archly heavy-handed foreshadowing and its scene-for-scene parody of the original's fright strategies ... is a gas.
The Stepford Wives fails to find a comfortable tone. The humor is never black enough, the plot never important enough.
The problem as I see it with The Stepford Wives hasn’t as much to do with the movie itself, as it has to do with the way the movie’s been marketed.
Doesn't have the bite or the kick to qualify as a memorable black comedy.
Trying to be more antic and cuttingly funny, it misses the premise's shivery tension.
A smugly scatterbrained movie development committee throws the sociological kitchen sink at anyone stupid enough to care about Ann Coulter.
does away with any of the cautionary edge the first adaptation had and replaces it with silly humor
In this `Stepford,' the threat isn't so much tradition-minded men but corporate mother hens such as Martha Stewart - the ones who want to bake their cakes and eat them too.
...a muddled movie that half-heartedly tries to land somewhere in between horror and comedy.
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