Stepford Wives Review at AICN

[Rotwang]

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=17150

There might be server trouble as there were a lot of news segements that will make the AICN server go sloooooooooooooooow.

[KOS-MOS]

For those having trouble loading the page I am posting a cut-n-paste of the review. I bolded a couple of parts which I found of most interest. This review could be said to have SPOILERS, so you have been warned.

Yo Harry,

Just now got back from a screening, the first anywhere they said, of the Stepford Wives.

This is a remake of the 1970's classic, which was itself an adaptation of Ira Levin's classic novel about a perfect little town where the husbands get up to shenanigans. It's Bachelor Party with robots.

Alas, all is still not well in Stepford when our heroine, Nicole Kidman enters with her shlubby husband, Matthew Broderick and her children.

This time, the character being fitted for the Cuisenart dress is a TV exec who has a breakdown after she's fired and finds out her husband is having an affair with her secretary all in the same morning.

Her hubbie decides to move them to the idyllic little town of Stepford to start over.

The movie's tone is very different than the original. This one almost starts out as a comedy, with zany sterotypes the Jewish writer, (played by Bette Midler) and the gay guy, etc.

While this version has as many teeth as a soup sucking denizen of an old age home, it does get in its shots, but the subtext is unclear...is it talking about Feminism? American Excess? Couplehood? The movie isn't even sure it seems, as it runs around trying to cover all bases. It wants to be dark, but funny, and also goofy, but serious.

One of the films greatest successes is the special effects: the few times the supporting characters exhibit their roboticness is funny AND disturbing, because they move like MACHINES should and that's scary.

But we were shown what HAD to be an alternate ending. See, first we wind up, as in the original, with the main character, post-robot, in a supermarket, along with all her new robot pals (actually, they are no longer robots in the story. The brain is extracted, placed in a robotic body, with some extra chips to make 'em act right. Problem is, most of the wives were apparently so perfect looking to begin with, you wonder why they needed new bodies. Seems the brain augmentation thing would be enough.)

Anyhoo, when I saw what I ASSUMED was the ending, I thought to myself "self, it may not be as good as the original, but it was fun and a nice bit of satire." Then it kept going...and going.

We were treated to a BS Hollywood ending where it turns out that Broderick and Nicole were putting the wool over everyone's eyes and manage to sneak into the lair of the nefarious Mike (Chris Walken, fine as ever) and free all the ladies, who are only a little miffed about being transplanted into robotic bodies and being used as beer coolers. I kid not.

And it goes on and on, with twists I won't bother telling you about, not because their spoliers, but because they're stupid.

This might not be the ending they go with. The soundtrack behind it was the theme from Edward Scissorhands, so I can only guess this was a test of sorts.

I will mention one thing: the supermarket ending is played out again, this time with the shlubby husbands doing the shopping. A Rhodes Scholar behind me said "A perfect world...where men always do the shopping." That's when the real subtext of the movie, or at least what it SHOULD have been, hit me: when people fantasize about the perfect partner, they tend to fantasize about a slave.

It's too bad the movie was so muddy that (apparantly) the point was lost.

Call me DENNIS CALERO...

cuz thats my name.

[Svengli]

Well,

This was what we were all expecting.

Yes, everything will be perfectly executed but with the guiding intelligence being a confused commitee of morons. Yes, it sounds like it will be a typical mediocre Hollywood movie but one with exactly the kind of gynoid action that we enjoy. "It's Bachelor Party with robots" - that sounds cool.

Actually, I suppose if the movie has a *parody* of a surprise hollywood ending, then that might actually work.

Anyway, one approach would be to leave when the supermarket scene comes on. It might be a very enjoyable experiance at that point.

But I don't think matters - I suspect that once the deluxe DVD is out, each of us will be able to put together what ending we want.

S

[rickdrat]

Well, it's my particular quirk with this fetish, but brain transplants just don't do it for me. If you're gonna make a robot, make a robot from the ground up. Don't just scoop the brain out and plunk it into a bot. That's too much like transformation, which I despise. No organic parts for me. I know many of you feel differently and this flick will delight those much more than me. Just the same, they've already got my 7 bucks. I'll buy into the premise one way or the other. Just throwing in my 2 cents.

[noidguy]

Well, waddya gonna do? Two reasons to justify the mush brain idea: 1. Couldn't convince us that technology could exist to replicate the human thought processes (but hey, didn't they handle it just fine back in the 70s with the original version?). 2. Writers needed some way for the women to win in the end, and with their brains still intact they can overcome the controller chips and regain their independence.

Regardless of the spoilers coming out I'm looking forward to it, if just for the brief special effects scenes. Imagine....bot now stands for "beer on tap"

[Svengli]

Keep in mind that the brain-transplant plot device might only be revealed at the point that the plot-twist comes into effect. The details of the robots might actually change according to which plot twist is chosen.

But maybe it will required for any of the fake endings they wind-up choosing.

S