The Stepford Wives (2004)
Directed by Frank Oz
What does it take to become a Stepford wife, a woman perfect beyond belief? Ask the Stepford husbands, who've created this high-tech, terrifying little town.
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What critics compared The Stepford Wives to
The original 1975 film version of The Stepford Wives, itself based on the novel by Ira Levin, starred Paula Prentiss and Katherine Ross and was a dark, genuinely creepy horror flick with a relevant point to make about men’s fear of feminism.
A wholly uninspired and shoddily constructed remake of the 1975 original, this version of The Stepford Wives is a big budget affair replete with a great cast that’s forced to flounder with poor material that only works once in a great while; the material itself isn’t helped by a lead performance by Nicole Kidman that is all shrill, all the time; a one note performance if I ever saw one.
Nicole Kidman stars as a New York TV executive who retreats to an idyllic Connecticut community in the comedic remake of "The Stepford Wives."
Now, nearly 30 years later, director Frank Oz and scripter Paul Rudnick update novelist Ira Levin’s darkly satiric work and give it, and the term, a happy face in “The Stepford Wives.”
Director Frank Oz ("The Score," "Bowfinger") just doesn't seem right for this material, although he had something going in the opening "Network" segment with Kidman in the field she wanted "To Die For." Things get mired down in the obvious as soon as Joanna and Walter attend a Stepford social function and witness Sarah Sunderson (prominently billed, but blink or you'll miss her Faith Hill) go haywire on the dance floor.
In the beginning there's Kidman, exuberantly strident, as a roaring TV executive, heir to the mania of Faye Dunaway in ''Network.''
It's as if scripter Paul Rudnick and director Frank Oz were suddenly inspired to take a page from Network, not realizing that they're running behind the times rather than ahead of them.
Peele has counted the thrillers of Ira Levin (writer of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives) among his inspirations, and most of Get Out finds Chris uncertain whether he’s the victim in a horror plot — or whether everyone just acts bizarre around him.
Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives , would have cracked a wry smile at the cackling satire of this chilling “social thriller”, the directorial debut from MadTV alumnus Jordan Peele.
Mashing up Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner with Ira Levin stories like Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives , it’s a sickly hilarious skewering of liberal paternalism in which white condescension reveals sinister ends.
A reconfiguration of 1975’s The Stepford Wives , the Bryan Forbes adaptation of the Ira Levin novel, about a community of white suburban housewives who become hollowed out robots for their passive aggressive husbands, Peele brings his own new twists to a similar idea.
Slivers of Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives," and a hint of L.Q.
There are shades of The Stepford Wives (1972) and Rosemary’s Baby (1967) in both Get Out and Peele’s new horror/thriller Us , a movie about a family terrorized by doppelgängers (of sorts) who intend to replace them.
Alas, it can’t quite outdo the many films it culls from, particularly The Stepford Wives (the 2004 remake of which was and is often underrated).
Ricalca anche le atmosfere e la storia della pellicola di Frank Oz “The Stepford Wives“, (La Donna Perfetta, 2004), pellicola tratta dal romanzo del 1972 scritto da Ira Marvin Levi.
No fundo, “Don’t Worry Darling” é um remake não assumido de “The Stepford Wives” e talvez seja melhor assim, para não ficarmos presos a legados.
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The most effective of the modern directors with this is Frank Oz who, just with last summer underrated The Stepford Wives; cast Nicole Kidman as a woman paralyzed by her own ambition and Matthew Broderick as a man who can?t escape the shadow of his increasingly prolific wife.
Director Frank Oz ("Bowfinger," "The Stepford Wives") crosses the pond to make a typically English farce, but while it has its moments it is also mired in truly offputting scatological 'humor,' absurdly forced setups and a simply horrible performance from famous former Beatle girlfriend Jane Asher ("Dreamchild") as the clan's matriarch.
Guess dealing with so many big names—and even bigger egos—on The Stepford Wives took its toll on Frank Oz .
Then he delivered Bowfinger, The Score and The Stepford Wives.
Behind the camera for high-concept star vehicles (“Bowfinger,” “The Score,” “Housesitter,” “The Stepford Wives”), Frank Oz seems as stiff and uncomfortable as when he handled one prophylactic … soiled … in “The Blues Brothers.”
In the wake of the misconceived, bloated, too-many-chefs disaster that was his "remake" of The Stepford Wives, fleeing to England must have seemed like a very good idea for director Frank Oz.