"Stepford Wives"
Jun. 25th, 2004 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournThe original movie was a creepy sci-fi horror story about a husband's betrayal and the desire for the banal simplicity of the 50's image of perfection. The 2004 remake is a campy farce.
It's still fun and has some great moments in it, but it lacked any real menace. Perhaps it is because the 50's image of perfection is generally viewed with ridicule these days. It also has some serious continuity issues--the ending almost seems like an 'alternate ending' tacked onto the movie. The most horrific part of this movie to me was the fake 'reality show' promo during the movie's setup and really horrible outfits they had the women wearing. And who thinks every woman has to be a blonde to be a sexy play toy?
Two interesting twists to this version of the movie were a rendition of the 'Gay Stepford Wife' and the way all the men's personalities were effectively stolen from Revenge of the Nerds... There were some great comedic moments in the movie as well, particularly comparing the 'city-life' in Manhattan and the burbs of Connecticut.
The nice thing is that this movie didn't take itself seriously. The bad thing is that this movie trivializes the issues at the core of the original movie and the book. Still, it was a lot less depressing than watching "Fahrenheit 9/11" and I'd rather be raped in prison than watch "Garfield: The Movie", "White Chicks", or "The Day After Tomorrow".
It's still fun and has some great moments in it, but it lacked any real menace. Perhaps it is because the 50's image of perfection is generally viewed with ridicule these days. It also has some serious continuity issues--the ending almost seems like an 'alternate ending' tacked onto the movie. The most horrific part of this movie to me was the fake 'reality show' promo during the movie's setup and really horrible outfits they had the women wearing. And who thinks every woman has to be a blonde to be a sexy play toy?
Two interesting twists to this version of the movie were a rendition of the 'Gay Stepford Wife' and the way all the men's personalities were effectively stolen from Revenge of the Nerds... There were some great comedic moments in the movie as well, particularly comparing the 'city-life' in Manhattan and the burbs of Connecticut.
The nice thing is that this movie didn't take itself seriously. The bad thing is that this movie trivializes the issues at the core of the original movie and the book. Still, it was a lot less depressing than watching "Fahrenheit 9/11" and I'd rather be raped in prison than watch "Garfield: The Movie", "White Chicks", or "The Day After Tomorrow".
