90s Movie Review - The First Wives Club

Director: Hugh Wilson
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 103 minutes
Year: 1996
Starring: Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber, Stephen Collins, Sarah Jessica Parker, Stockard Channing, Elizabeth Berkley, Marcia Gay Harden, Maggie Smith, Bronson Pinchot

Description: Reunited by the death of a college friend, three divorced women seek revenge on the husbands who left them for younger women.

Review: “The First Wives Club” is a revenge comedy, that is mostly fun because of their three leads Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler. They play three women who reunite after a college friend suddenly passed away. All three are recently divorced and their husbands left them for a younger woman. Together they seek justice.

The film has many funny moments Not very realistic, but enjoyable. Especially Hawn and Midler are really funny. The film does lack depth and the characters are all a bit superficial because of it.

A fun no-nonsense comedy, about gender struggles and independent women. Nothing spectacular.

Rating: 3/ 5

90s Movie Review - A Family Divided

Director: Don Wrye
Genre: Thriller/ Drama
Runtime: 97 minutes
Year: 1995
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Stephen Collins, Cameron Bancroft, Judson Mills, Aidan Pendleton
Description: A respectable middle class family lives begin to fall apart when the parents come to suspect that son Chad may have been involved in a gang-rape.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2025 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 20: A FILM WITH FAYE DUNAWAY
 
Review: Karen and Roger live a happy life with their two children, Chad and Melissa. When Karen is watching the news, she learns about a missing girl. They quickly find out that Chad might have been involved in a gang-rape, and that this girl is now missing.

What would you do to protect your child? That’s the moral of the story. It’s pretty clear Chad was involved, just as his sorority friend. You would think that Roger, a lawyer, would make Chad want to do the right thing and turn himself in. But Roger wants to cover it up and protect Chad, no matter what. Karen is the one that feels this is wrong. She becomes estranged from her husband and feels she has failed as a mother, realizing what her son has done.

It's fine, the story is interesting, how each character deals with this horrible situation. Aside from Faye Dunaway, the acting is pretty bad though. And although the story is focused on this family, I would also want to know what would happen to the other guys that were involved. Especially Carter, who seemed to be the initiator of this cruel act. He seems to have no remorse and I wanted to see him get justice. We never learn what happens to any of them and we never see the victim’s side of the story either.

I know that the director wanted to do, focus on what this did to Chad’s family. But it didn’t work for me. I wanted more from this story.

Rating: 2 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 111: All the President's Men

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Genre: Drama/ Thriller

Runtime: 138 minutes

Year: 1976

Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Martin Balsam, Jane Alexander, Meredith Baxter, Stephen Collins, Penny Fuller, John McMartin, Robert Walden, Frank Wills, F. Murray Abraham

Description: Reporters Woodward (Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Nixon's resignation.

Review: This movie is probably the base for many journalists and their ambitions, but any upcoming reporter is obligated to see this. “All the President’s Men” is about some fine journalism. Protecting your sources, creative games to get information from people. And this all to reveal one of the biggest scandals in American history.

The movie is based on the book written by the two journalist Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They wrote about the Watergate-affair. The fact that this scandal is real maeks the movie legendary, but Alan J. Pakula made good thriller. You have to pay attention though, because you get a lot of information from various people in different organizations. Although most people know what happened during the Watergate-affair, many will still be shocked by it and what it did to people.

The camera work isn’t extraordinary and sometimes it feels a bit repetitive. The setting is cold and sober, not much has been done to make it look better. But the acting by Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford makes up for it. Sometimes a bit too much, sometimes very thoughtless, it feels natural.

“All the President’s Men” is a pretty slow film that should be viewed for its contents. It’s an interesting film about an interesting topic.

Rating: 3,5/ 5