Little Tony DeFranco
06-13-2004, 07:24 AM
Review: The Stepford Wives
This comic remake of the Ira Levin novel has is painfully uneven but still very funny, thanks to Piscataway writer Paul Rudnick and director Frank Oz (Miss Piggy muppet, Little Shop of Horrors) who did a good comedy called "In and Out" with Kevin Klein playing a latent homo about to marry. It is obvious that there were some reshoots and a tag on ending so the movie has problems. The 1975 film by Brit director Bryan Forbes was a good creepy adaptation starring Katherine Ross.
The story is kind of like "Invasion of The Body Snatchers" , a secluded and rich town called Stepford Connecticut is a place where all the women are stunning servants to their husbands with plastic smiles and a plate of cookies on every table. They also bang their husbands whenever commanded with screams of "YOU ARE THE MASTER, THE KING...OHHHHHH..". Joanna and Walter Eberhard are new to town and welcomed but Joanna is miffed by the wives robot-like manners. The mystery unfolds to reveal the husbands are out to replace their wives with robots.
Oz and Rudnick have modernized the tale as a broad comedy with Nichole Kidman as Joanna Eberhard and Matthew Broderick as Walter Kresby (she kept her maiden name for business reasons). The movie is one long joke peppered with great characters like a gay couple (Producers star Roger Bart steals the movie as the gayest man alive while his partner David Marshall Grant is a Republican), and Glenn Close as the royal leader of the Stepford Book Club (they review coffee table Christmas books). Bette Midler and Jon Lovitz as the new JEWS round out some good laughs. But wait....Christopher Walken is Mike.. the leader of the Stepford Men's Society (Bigass Laughs). Good jabs at TV,women, men, gays and Jews and other taboo shit to do with rich people.
Where does it foul up, to start with Nichole Kidman's comic talent..not that good but she does a good job in the opening scene when she gets fired from her exec job. Broderick isn't funny enough as Walter. The turn around ending is silly (but funny over the top) even though it makes no sense in accord of the original book and movie. The support cast is better than the 2 leads and it gets good laughs (the audience liked it). Watch for Mike White (School of Rock) and country star Faith Hill as an F-Doll wife with a remote control. Bart and Close do the finest work of all the cast. Good Rental.
http://www.browntownjohnny.com/modules.php?name=MReviews (http://www.browntownjohnny.com/index.php)
Heartbeat is a Love Beat
This comic remake of the Ira Levin novel has is painfully uneven but still very funny, thanks to Piscataway writer Paul Rudnick and director Frank Oz (Miss Piggy muppet, Little Shop of Horrors) who did a good comedy called "In and Out" with Kevin Klein playing a latent homo about to marry. It is obvious that there were some reshoots and a tag on ending so the movie has problems. The 1975 film by Brit director Bryan Forbes was a good creepy adaptation starring Katherine Ross.
The story is kind of like "Invasion of The Body Snatchers" , a secluded and rich town called Stepford Connecticut is a place where all the women are stunning servants to their husbands with plastic smiles and a plate of cookies on every table. They also bang their husbands whenever commanded with screams of "YOU ARE THE MASTER, THE KING...OHHHHHH..". Joanna and Walter Eberhard are new to town and welcomed but Joanna is miffed by the wives robot-like manners. The mystery unfolds to reveal the husbands are out to replace their wives with robots.
Oz and Rudnick have modernized the tale as a broad comedy with Nichole Kidman as Joanna Eberhard and Matthew Broderick as Walter Kresby (she kept her maiden name for business reasons). The movie is one long joke peppered with great characters like a gay couple (Producers star Roger Bart steals the movie as the gayest man alive while his partner David Marshall Grant is a Republican), and Glenn Close as the royal leader of the Stepford Book Club (they review coffee table Christmas books). Bette Midler and Jon Lovitz as the new JEWS round out some good laughs. But wait....Christopher Walken is Mike.. the leader of the Stepford Men's Society (Bigass Laughs). Good jabs at TV,women, men, gays and Jews and other taboo shit to do with rich people.
Where does it foul up, to start with Nichole Kidman's comic talent..not that good but she does a good job in the opening scene when she gets fired from her exec job. Broderick isn't funny enough as Walter. The turn around ending is silly (but funny over the top) even though it makes no sense in accord of the original book and movie. The support cast is better than the 2 leads and it gets good laughs (the audience liked it). Watch for Mike White (School of Rock) and country star Faith Hill as an F-Doll wife with a remote control. Bart and Close do the finest work of all the cast. Good Rental.
http://www.browntownjohnny.com/modules.php?name=MReviews (http://www.browntownjohnny.com/index.php)
Heartbeat is a Love Beat