Review of The First Wives Club (1996) by Johnny T — 06 Aug 2011

THIS IS THE MICHAEL'S 500th MOVIE REVIEW! The First Wives Club doesn't have a balance of comedy nor a balanced moral message. It's not my kind of movie, but The First Wives Club is somebody's kind of movie.

3 middle age woman who used to be best friends reunite after 27 years when their 4th friend died. The two talk and realize their lives are unhappy and it's all because of their prideful husbands who left them for someone younger. So the 3 create a club to make their former husbands pay. What begins as a interesting and cute comedy idea turns into an unbalanced mix of moral feminism and not too funny comedy. All the best comedy happens at the beginning though. It is kind of funny at times, but the girl's path of revenge turns into uninspired silly slapstick so fast. Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton make a good team, buy their star power doesn't quite cut it. The First Wives Club might be a "feminism, HOO AH!" movie, but I guess it doesn't appeal to me because I'm a guy. I figure woman will enjoy this movie more than me so I can't entirely judge the fun quality of this movie, especially when the ending of the movie has an awkward but not-that-bad conclusion.

Part of the reason though why I don't like this movie is because it does look underdeveloped in many ways. Sure, it's a comedy and comedies look a certain way, but '90s quality comedy movies look so cliche and bad. Not the best cinematograph is used, uncreative uses of lighting, not the best camera angles, and the sets of everything look so unnatural in most cases. But is it a complete failure? No. Just because it's not creative doesn't mean it's done badly. But where this movie really drags is in the badly paced 3rd act drama that you don't know what the problem is anyways, but apparently there's a problem with the situation cause you can tell from the change in music.

This movie isn't for me. It has it's moments, but this is a girl's comedy, not a comedy for everyone. I'm not partial to it, but as a fun chick movie for others who enjoy this kind of stuff, go nuts, because it does have a good cast and some entertaining scenes.