The Stepford Wives - (2004 Movie)

The Stepford Wives (2004 Re-Make)

Genre : Comedy

MPAA Rating : PG-13 (93 minutes)

My Rating : 4½*/10

. Want to get away from the stress of city life? Want to live happily forever-and-ever? Want your wife to be June Cleaver with playmate boobs? Then the quiet 'burb of Stepford, Connecticut may be just what you're looking for. But tranquility and docility come at a cost... . What's To Like... If you're going to do a remake of a classic, then at least do something different. The 1975 movie based on an Ira Levin novel was positively spooky. This 2004 version tells the tale via a whole new genre - comedy. . You get an all-star cast - Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick are the headliners. Bette Midler and John Lovitz are a great supporting duo, and Glenn Close and Christopher Walken threaten to steal the scenes, they're that good. . The one-liners are great. The make-up artists show how big of an effect they have by doing makeovers on Bette and Nicole. And you even have a gay couple living openly in Stepford; a sure sign that this isn't the 70's anymore. . Alas, the script and plot resolution are positively atrocious. Are the Stepford Wives robots? Zombies? Aliens? Brain-Washed? Tagged and Chipped? ATM machines? Hypnotized? At various times, any and all of the above seems to be the answer. The movie never resolves that. This is a flick where simply checking your brain at the door before you watch it may not be sufficient. A full-scale lobotomy may be in order. . There is a nice plot twist at the end, but it gets cancelled out by Kidman's mucho lame-o climactic moralizing speech. Don't blame her though. Shoot the scriptwriter. . This movie bombed in the theaters, and according to the Wikipedia article on it (see here) just about the entire cast ended up hating the finished version. I give it 4½ stars. Watch it for the laughs, and try not to scratch those itchy lobotomy sutures.