Must-see movies are futuristic classics that shouldn’t be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That’s why we’ve rated them 1-5 on the patented “crunchy goodness” scale.
Title: The Stepford Wives
Date: 1975
Vitals: Possibly the first mainstream feminist science fiction movie ever made, this is the genuinely creepy tale of a town full of men who conspire to replace their uppity, unsatisfied wives with fembots who love to cook, clean, and give deep throat.
Famous names: Bryan Forbes, William Goldman, Katharine Ross
Crunchy goodness: 4
Ripoffs: The early twenty-first century saw two weird remakes of this flick: the first was a made-for-TV movie called The Stepford Husbands, which was about women replacing uppity, unsatisfied hubbies with sensitive dudes who love to repair the sink; the second was a hideous remake of the original movie with fembot-esque actress Nicole Kidman (she of many bad SF movie remakes) defeating the formerly-unstoppable bots.
Elevator pitch: It’s like Westworld crossed with Ms. magazine, but you still have a bunch of hot chicks to stare at.
Design breakthrough: Despite its feminist “the man is keeping us down” message, The Stepford Wives manages to show us lots of super-sexy robot ladies, thus catering to both the growing female SF audience, and the never-depleted audience of fanboys who want to fuck fembots.
