Stepford Wives, The
I would like to start out saying that I have never seen the original film, so there will be no comparisons between the two, or the book.
Review:
Well I after watching this film I am somewhat disappointed. I was shocked to find out that Imdb.com list this movie as a comedy. I did not laugh once, But it was entertaining.
The movie takes too long getting started.....
I would like to start out saying that I have never seen the original film, so there will be no comparisons between the two, or the book.
Review:
Well I after watching this film I am somewhat disappointed. I was shocked to find out that Imdb.com list this movie as a comedy. I did not laugh once, But it was entertaining.
The movie takes too long getting started and too long to finish, it just seemed to drag for me. Nicole Kidman gives the best performance in the movie but it is not her best. I found Christopher walkin’s performance also very good, as was most of the cast’s. The camera work and cinematography was also excellent. Nicole Kidman’s character, a successful executive for TV channel EBS, is fired from her high paying job. Out of work she suffers from a nervous breakdown so her husband Walter (Mathew Broderick), decides to move the family to a new home in the exclusive town of Stepford. As Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) recovers from her breakdown she realises that there is something very strange about stepford.
Its worth a watch and has its moments but it is in no way a classic.
Video:
The DVD is presented in Anamorphic 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The first thing that hit me with this DVD is how soft the picture is, it’s extremely soft and is lacking detail. But this has to be the one and only fault that i found irritating with the transfer.
All of the colours are vivid and black levels are very good. I only noticed light evidence of edge enhancement, mainly on brighter scenes. But it’s not very problematic and will not interfere with your viewing pleasure.
Sound:
If you want to show of your state-of-the-art home cinema set up then this is not the DVD for you. It’s a dialogue driven movie and thus you will not hear a great deal from the surround sound speakers except for some music and the occasional ambient sound.
Extras:
Audio Commentary -This commentary features the director, Frank Oz. He explains why he changed certain scenes at the last minute and why he cut various scenes from the final film.
If you are a fan of this film, which you must be if you are contemplating buying this DVD, then this is one of the best features on the disc.
Frank Oz walks you through the film scene by scene explaining the whys and how’s. Once you have listened to it I think only die-hard fanatics will feel the need to listen to it again.
A Perfect World: Making of - Various crew members discuss what it takes to make a town. It’s the longest running special feature and it is defiantly worth watching. It covers topics such as costume design, lighting, various other aspects of the film making process in relation to the stepford Wives. It also features interviews with cast and crew. It complements the audio commentary perfectly and it will please any fan of this film.
Stepford: A Definition – Cast and crew discuss the idea of a “Stepford wife” and what the term means to them. I didn’t find this particularly interesting and I doubt if I will watch it again.
The Architects - This short special feature focuses on the creative movie making process. Cast members explain how and why they “modified” the story of the original book and movie and updated it for modern audiences.
The Stepford Wives - This special feature goes into more depth about the wives and what their characters purpose is within the story.
This is a redundant feature as once you have seen the film and listened to the audio commentary you will know everything this feature try’s to tell you.
The Stepford Husbands – This is a very similar feature as the previous feature. So you will not learn anything new and again I feel that this is just “filler” material to give the impression of a feature packed DVD.
Deleted Scenes/Extended Scene - There are six scenes here. They are all worth a watch and it’s a shame that there isn’t an option to watch an extended cut of this film with these scenes included, as most of them are entertaining.
The sound and video quality are below average but as they are not part of the film I expected this.
Final Verdict:
I wouldn’t pay full price for this DVD but if you can pick it up cheap then I think you should take the plunge. There could have been more special features as it will not take very long to watch everything. The Film itself is worth watching and it is worth renting but I would not buy it as there is very little that will make you want to watch it more that once.
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