... The DVD case blurb suggests it is a date movie, but back-row cuddlers would find just as little as the undemanding ice-cream and slippers female brigade.
Elsewhere, the DVD offers clues that the film-makers were struggling to make the film they - or their producers - wanted to make. Deleted ... Read review
Release Date: 2004-11-29, Rating Suitable for 15 years and over,
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon...
Release Date: 2004-11-29, Rating Suitable for 15 years and over,
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon...
An update of the 1975 thriller, The Stepford Wives is a contemporary comedy with Oscar ... more
winner Nicole Kidman heading an all-star cast, including Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Faith Hill.After moving with her husban...
Joanna (Katherine Ross) reluctantly moves with her husband and children from New York City ... more
to the suburban community of Stepford, Connecticut. But when life in Stepford begins to seem too perfect, Joanna and her new friend Bobby (Paula Prentiss) investigate a mysterious conspiracy among the town's husbands. Are this suburb's women happy to be vapid homemakers or is there a more shocking secret behind the domestic perfection of THE STEPFORD WIVES?THE STEPFORD WIVES remains a legendary combination of chilling chauvinist horror and savage social commentary. Peter Masterson, Tina Louise, Nanette Newman and Mary Stuart Masterson (in her film debut) co-star in this controversial cult thriller based on the best-selling novel by Ira Levin (author of Rosemary's Baby).
Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made ... more
theStepford Wivesa compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover inThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semi-classic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
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Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made for this ... more
compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover inThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semi-classic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. The DVD release presents the film in its original widescreen dimensions. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
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Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made ... more
theStepford Wivesa compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover inThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semi-classic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Ira Levin's scary novel about forced conformity in a small Connecticut town made ... more
theStepford Wivesa compelling 1975 thriller. Katharine Ross stars as a city woman who moves with her husband to Stepford and is startled by how perpetually happy many of the local women seem to be. Her search for an answer reveals a plot to replace troublesome real wives with more accommodating fake ones (not unlike the alien takeover inThe Invasion of the Body Snatchers). The closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she faces--not to mention the likelihood that the men in town intend to replace her as well. Screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and director Bryan Forbes (King Rat) made this a taut, tense semi-classic with a healthy dose of satiric wit. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Postage & Packaging:£1.21 Availability:Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Advantages: Entertaining mix of sci-fi and gentle humour; la Kidman Disadvantages: Very mild and error-strewn mix of styles
Looking back, it might be the case that Tim Burton should have remade this 70s film and not Planet of the Apes. If you think that's a daft idea just play the opening music without thinking that's not Danny Elfman's best ever tune. (Actually, it's David Arnold sounding like Burton's usual composer.) Elsewhere the suburbia gone hyper-kitsch is more than a bit familiar to Edward Scissorhands fans.
Joanna, a power-dressing, power-wielding, ... ...career, until hubby Walter moves the whole family to the small, charming community of Stepford, Connecticut. But as is immediately obvious, all is not what it seems.
It's a nicely humorous and pretty approach to what is at heart science fiction, but you soon get the sense things are not quite right, when our way into the odd world of Stepford (where… well, if you still don't know, after one book and one previous film…) is aided by ... more
Looking back, it might be the case that Tim Burton should have remade this 70s film and not Planet of the Apes. If you think that's a daft idea just play the opening music without thinking that's not Danny Elfman's best ever tune. (Actually, it's David Arnold sounding like Burton's usual composer.) Elsewhere the suburbia gone hyper-kitsch is more than a bit familiar to Edward Scissorhands fans.
Joanna, a power-dressing, power-wielding, uber-designed TV executive suffers a breakdown when the networks have cause to turn against her misogynist reality show concepts. She now has nowhere to take her rictus grin that has done her so well in her career, until hubby Walter moves the whole family to the small, charming community of Stepford, Connecticut. But as is immediately obvious, all is not what it seems.
It's a nicely humorous and pretty approach to what is at heart science fiction, but you soon get the sense things are not quite right, when our way into the odd world of Stepford (where… well, if you still don't know, after one book and one previous film…) is aided by a raging gay queen (all pink cardies draped over shoulders and interior design tips) and Bette Midler's slovenly, cerebral Jewish author with her dildo jokes. You do worry for the subtlety of the rest of the film.
Still, the story arc for the main is quite good - Joanna comes out of her shell and just cannot fail, smart as she is, to work out what is going on with the relationships around her. For beyond the apple-pie perfection of the community, led by a gurning Glenn Close and a Christopher "I like to dance" Walken as it is, there are in-jokes about American class and consumerism, and a more interesting revelation of the whole scenario. Can her relationship with Walt survive when he takes on a form of Robot Wars with his buddies?
So why was this film given rather poor reviews, and didn't do very well at the box office? Well, there's a reason for it given in the script, but Matthew Broderick is not exactly the hunky chap normally gifted the part of playing opposite Nicole Kidman. She herself looks more than a little against type, with short brunette hair for the most part. And while the film is bright and breezy (not even an hour and a half) there is a sense of it being rushed - the first antagonistic words Walt says to Joanna come as a complete surprise, as too much that might have led up to it is hidden or chopped out.
Or rather, it is in the mind of the female audience that just sees the men hide in the Stepford Men's Association, and comes to its own conclusion. This is a bit of a chick flick, while at the same time trying to parody all the feminism and masculism debate of the last few decades in one pop sci-fi scenario. The DVD case blurb suggests it is a date movie, but back-row cuddlers would find just as little as the undemanding ice-cream and slippers female brigade.
Elsewhere, the DVD offers clues that the film-makers were struggling to make the film they - or their producers - wanted to make. Deleted scenes normally come with a commentary to say how heart-wrenching it was to leave them out, but those here are clearly nowhere in keeping with the finished product, whether they're heavily FX-led knock-about scenes or just imbalanced nonsense - some areas have also been air-brushed down to a more sanitised friendliness. And watch the trailers for a whole hint of a conversation we get nowhere else.
The extras all told are quite good, filling out the disc's short running time, but coming as they do in silly little snippets of documentary when one better-compiled selection of set footage, talking heads and what have you would have been better, again do not provide quite the entertainment level they should. They're still educational, in a small way. And the gag reel shows that if you can get the giggles at the right time on set you might just have to kiss Nicole Kidman over and over and over again. Nice work if you can get it.
Frank Oz (for directs it he does) provides a rather bland commentary, in keeping more or less with what's going on. Of course everyone was wonderful to work with, the costumes and set people were superb, Glenn Close didn't need direction… You might think he makes too great a claim for the minor laughs here, complexity, subtlety and menace there.
It's by no means a perfect package, then, from the huge presence of Faith Hill (who?) on the sleeve when she has about three things to do in the film, through the mish-mash of tones and dimensions to the piece - creepy marriage metaphor, sign of the times political tract, gentle comedy, to the worst FX robot dog in cinema history.
We certainly could have asked for more, but for those who don't mind a bit of frivolity and levity, and those who will (rightly, perhaps) watch Nicole Kidman in anything she has done post-Cruise, this disc still provides enough for a reasonably enjoyable evening in. It's undemanding, and given a perfectly usable review platform would probably only get three and a half stars - it's simple charms only go *so* far - but it has a strange appeal that were it more successful it might not have had - the pleasure of a failure, if you like. Such a charm as is never to be seen amongst the Stepford wives themselves.
Advantages: Like Desperate Houswives Disadvantages: Without The Witty Scripts, Venomous Bite, Intriguing Rremise, Social Commentary, Or Well Handeled Charecterisation
I had wanted to watch The Stepford Wives for along time, the original although not a masterpiece had a venomous narrative and a good dose of social satire. It mixed engaging drama with edgy thriller with a sprinkle of dry comedy, it was quiet impressive, so I figured that the remake would improve on its predecessor. Boy was I wrong. Joanna Eberhart is one of the most powerful women in the world, she has single handedly turned her television channel ... ...them up for a week. The male is surrounded by beautiful babes in bikinis and the women are surrounded by dreamy hunks. After the week they are asked whether they want to stay together or go off with their new found friends, Joanna has already filmed a pilot in which a wife has left their husband. While our power woman is making a big speech, the husband storms in and starts shooting at her, she escapes unscathed, but is sacked, as her show caused ...
JayHall1991 31.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Stepford Wives (DVD)
Advantages: Entertaining easy to watch. Beautiful sets and costumes. Great DVD features. Disadvantages: All just too perfect?
...from a dull day in the office all my noble intentions of doing useful household tasks instead of flopping in front of the TV came to nothing. But rather than the usual flicking from soap to soap via some reality TV show or other, I decided to watch a DVD and the freshly rented The Stepford Wives seemed a light-hearted antidote to boredom. I wasn’t disappointed. Frank Oz (yes…the voice of Master Yoda he is!) directs the 2004 remake of The Stepford ... ...order to get away from the stresses and strains of New York living, her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick) decides to move the family out to the town of Stepford, Conneticut. As the family drive through the gates and are greeted with “Welcome to Stepford” it becomes obvious that this is no ordinary provincial town - it is the embodiment of perfection. The houses are enormous with immaculate gardens and decorated to precise Homes and Gardens standards ...
audreyh 05.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Stepford Wives (DVD)
Advantages: It has fantastic potential, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and Christopher walken Disadvantages: Just about everything else. The script is full of holes and mis oppertunities, i couldnt accept Kidman and Broderick as a couple, it just didnt work
The other night I decided to watch The Stepford Wives as I’d heard some encouraging things about it. A few people had recommended the book to me and the original film, but I thought I’d make my acquaintance with the story through the more recent version of the film. It boasted quite a star cast and the idea of the movie seemed creepy but entertaining. The original made back in 1975 is meant to be the better film and having watched this I’d certainly ... ...created hundred’s of programs for the network and made it a real hit. Until one of the contestants from one of the shows tries to kill her for ruining his marriage. The network decides its best that she leaves and from there she goes on to have a nervous breakdown. Her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick) decides he can’t work for them anymore and quits. To help his wife recover, Walter buys a house in Stepford Connecticut and moves the whole family ...
Andy.mack 10.04.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Stepford Wives (DVD)
Advantages: funny, good plot idea, likeable characters Disadvantages: end doesnt quite add up
...by scantily clad members of the opposite sex. They then have to decide whether to stay in their marriage or say 'I can do better' and leave. When one mans wife does just that, he goes crazy and tries to kill Joanna. The TV network decides she has taken reality TV too far and promptly fires her. This pushes her over the edge, and the next we see of her, she has turned into a nervous wreck, an almost disturbing figure, sitting in the corner, rocking, ... ...also quits his job at the TV Network to support his wife, and decides that what is needed to help Joanna recover is a clean break. He arranges for the whole family to move to a new house in Connecticut - a small town called Stepford - away from the stresses of life in the city.
On arrival the town couldn't look more perfect. It's like something out of a dream - all the houses are huge, very modern with all the latest gadgets installed and they have ...
pink_champagne 14.09.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Stepford Wives (DVD)
Advantages: a little light hearted,some great cast performances,good technology in the film Disadvantages: a lot of faults,not really that believable,pointless film
...your man? Stepford Wives tells the story of men who want 'perfect' wives. Wives that won't answer back, wives that won't nag them and best of all, wives who make them feel like real men. But can a perfect wife ever exist? Well maybe not in reality, but in the perfect little town of 'Stepford' they can; something that Joanna Elberhart is soon to find out.
*** My Opinion On... ***
Was it funny? Was it really entertaining? Was it what I expected it ... ...from the story to the ending to hopefully give you the best idea of whether or not this film is for you.
1) The Story
The story I thought was pretty much original though it is worth pointing out that this is a remake of the older version which was first shown in 1975. So obviously with this version it wasn't all their own ideas but for someone watching it for the first time like me, it was a good, original story. There were a few shocks thrown ...
AimeeLouise18 29.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Stepford Wives (DVD)
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Advantages: Interesting Background to the New Version Disadvantages: No Nicole Kidman!
Introduction
We own both versions of, ?The StepfordWives?, the original version and the recent, more popular version.
This review deals with the former for two reasons.
1. It gives me an opportunity to do a review of a movie that no one has thus far reviewed on CIAO.
2. I?m a great believer that you get a better understanding of film re-makes if you?ve seen the original.
So this review should be productive for my CIAO fund and your understanding of the original StepfordWives. What I call, a win-win situation.
Background: [based on Internet research and the DVD special features].
The original StepfordWives is, like a lot of movies, based on a book.
The book, carrying the same title as the film, was written in 1972 by Ira Levin who is also responsible for other great books-come-films, such as Rosemary?s Baby ...
Advantages: It's something to watch! Disadvantages: It's rubbish!
It is a very rare treat for us to actually go to the cinema and watch a movie. However, we were in town on a lazy Sunday afternoon at a time that coincided with the matinee showings at our local cinema. In all honesty, nothing really jumped out at us from the listings, but we had seen the trailers for the StepfordWives all weekend and plumped for that.
The StepfordWives is a remake of the original movie of the same name, which was made in 1975. The original starred Katharine Ross (of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fame) in the leading role of Joanna Eberhard. The 2004 version stars Nicole Kidman as Joanna, with Matthew Broderick as her husband, Walter Kresby. The modern version has indeed been modernised, with Broderick's character having a different surname to that of his wife, whereas the original version includes a more ...
Advantages: Funny and well written Disadvantages: A poor ending
The StepfordWives
The 2004 smash hit film the Stepfordwives is an uptodate remake of the 1975 classic film and I must admit that I was dragged along to see this film, thinking that it would mainly be a bit of a chic flick. My suspicions were founded when I entered the cinema and there were only about 20 men in a busy screen that was other wise packed with women (sad I know but I did actually count the number of men). I was sitting there wishing I was watching some action film when the film started and I have to admit that even at first the film grabbed my attention.
The plot:
Joanna Eberhard is the head of a US television network and is the premier woman (and man) in her field with a glittering list of hit programmes under her belt. All is going well in her career until she produces a programme that takes love ...
The tale of a young couple who move from Manhattan to Connecticut. Once there, they discover that the Stepford men are replacing their wives with compliant robots!
Remake Of
Stepford Wives ( 1975 United States of America ), Stepford Wives ( 1975 United States of America ), Stepford Wives ( 1975 United States of America )
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
DREAMWORKS HOME ENTERTAINMENT; PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT, DREAMWORKS HOME ENTERTAINMENT; UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK
Release date
19/06/2006, 29/11/2004
No of Discs
1
Catalogue No
DSL 1463, 830 158 2
Barcode
5051188146337, 5050583015828
Languages
Main Language
English
Professional reviews
Review
The must see film of the summer (Company, )
DVD Description
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.
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