The Stepford Wives (2004)

Director: Frank Oz

Writers: Ira Levin, Paul Rudnick

Composer: David Arnold

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Roger Bart, David Marshall Grant, Jon Lovitz, Dylan Hartigan, Fallon Brooking, Faith Hill, Matt Malloy

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  Make one.

Plot: 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, in a very modern comedy-thriller.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

It's been eons since I saw the original '77 film.  That one is a straight up thriller/horror.  This one's all for laughs and there are a lot of them.  Once we get to Stepford, CT, Glenn Close brings a lot of the funny.  She's friggin' hilarious.  It's too bad that she's largely in the beginning and her role diminishes from there until the very end.  I'd love more of her.  Hell, I'd love more of Bette Midler, Jon Lovitz and Roger Bart. All those kids are hilarious.  Nicole Kidman got one of the biggest laughs out of me when she reacts to being fired early on.  OMFG was that priceless.  The opening credit sequence was a lot of fun and so was Christopher Walken's cartoon commercial.  It's a fun remake and I like the direction it took in tone compared to the original film.  I'm not sure that story could be told the same all these years later and be an effective thriller.  We've had 30 plus years of them and audiences would know what's up early on. The only thing I didn't like was the last twenty minutes with the exception of the Walken 'surprise'.   But that surprise doesn't make up for changing the original ending. There are some holes in it that are easy to spot.  It's too bad because a more true to the original ending would make this re-watchable.