The Stepford Wives [DVD] [2004]

• The disk has English audio and subtitles.

An all-star cast remakes the 1975 socio-political horror flick, The Stepford Wives. After being fired as president of a television network, Joanna (Nicole Kidman) has a nervous breakdown, prompting her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick) to take her to a simple Connecticut town called Stepford to recuperate. But Stepford is a little strange: The husbands congregate at a closed-doors men's club, while the wives--all in bright summer frocks and air-brushed smiles--exercise to keep their hourglass figures and cook endless pastries. Joanna, along with new arrivals Bobbie (Bette Midler) and Roger (the very funny Roger Bart), soon discover that the mastermind of Stepford (Christopher Walken) has used cybernetics to "perfect" womankind. The Stepford Wives has some satirical zingers (from sneaky screenwriter Paul Rudnick), but the basic idea has lost a lot of gas since 1975. --Bret Fetzer