Blueghost I guess the thing that strikes me about this film is that a couple decades earlier there was a film called "9 to 5" about three working ladies who had a conniving boss. They put their heads together and overcome his scheming to benefit all. And yet this film, for all the similarities in terms of the number of lead women, their commonality of circumstance and so forth, their solution only benefits them and others like them.The other thing that hit me while watching this film is that it wasn't that funny. It was amusing in parts, it moved well, was well acted, had a decent story, but there wasn't much comedy in it. There really weren't too many clever and unexpected moments that typically make an audience laugh in the theatre. And that's the thing that's been missing from a lot of film since the early 80s. Truly. No joke.It was nice to see Keaton, Midler, and Hawn in a very energetic film, but the script wasn't that funny. In fact it was hardly funny at all. I can't help but think of "9 to 5" again when Parton leans out from the trunk of Tomlin's car with a dead body and says "Judy, could you come here for a minute?" with a knowing bright eyed grin. That's comedy. That's humor. That's funny. But "First Wives Club"?"First Wives Club" is about revenge and empowerment of wives who were dumped for younger men. Not having been married, also being a male, I have to say that I'm not the target audience for this thing, but even if I were I think the film could have been broader reaching in appeal. We've all been taken advantage of. It's a universal truth about both sexes. And that's the missed golden opportunity here that this film missed out on; i.e. these women may have been victims because they were married to these guys, but surely their ill behavior affected more than just them, and that any justice served by the three women would be a universal blow for all who were mistreated by these ex-husbands.But that isn't what we get, and so the film falls flat on that score, but manages to eek out a few smiles and nods of agreement among divorced women. The film has a certain zest to it, but it's not a very well written script. Or, better yet, the scripts focus of whom to allow to identify with these characters is way too narrowly focused, and needed a major rewrite to show the suffering from husbands with flawed characters is not just "a ladies' thing", so to speak.Maybe give it a shot if you have nothing better to do (as I did), but there are better films out there.

baphomet93 Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn get divorced by their respective husbands. They team up to see "justice" done to their horrible husbands. What follows is a cavalcade of theft, extortion and blackmail wrapped in the idea that these women are "empowering" themselves. One might imagine it might be more empowering to take their monthly alimony checks and make a new life for themselves. Were one to make a movie about three men who dedicate their time to making the lives of the women who dumped them as miserable as possible but draining away all their wives money and even getting a little violent, such a film would hardly be considered funny. This film is, if anything, a glaring example of the double standard perpetrated by women in society today and I find nothing funny about hypocrisy.

david-sarkies Well, this was an entertaining movie, but it did not really stand out. The movie started off slowly and seemed to end in a whimper. The main characters came out on top, and the men that they were trying to manipulate were successfully manipulated. This is not an original movie as I had seen it all before in She-Devil. The only difference was that it dealt with three women instead of one.The basic premise is that four women graduated from college together full of idealism. Later in life their idealism is destroyed as their respective husbands walk out on them - and each of them handle it in a different way. One destroys herself with alcohol, another constantly complains and tries to hang onto her son, while another remains oblivious to the fact that anything is wrong. The forth one throws herself off of a building and it is this event that draws them all back together. They realise that they had given their respective husbands the best years of their life, and this has been discarded by them, so they decide to get back at their husbands and destroy them. Basically it becomes a similar plot to that of She-Devil.There is nothing that really stands out in this movie that I really wish to discuss. It looks at the frustration that women face in divorce, and though this may be a rare case, women can be just as vicious in divorce proceedings as can men. If we look at Liar Liar, we see a woman milking the man for all that she can get - while here the men have used the women and thrown them away. I agree that men can be bastards, but so can everybody.I guess the purpose of this movie was to try and bring us into the women's point of view - but the theme can be gender-neutral, with the exception that men (or men that I have known) will simply wallow in their misery, while women will carry on. Even then that statement is not entirely true as everybody reacts to a divorce situation differently. I was going to make a comment that it was based on a book written by a female, while the screenwriters and directors were male, meaning that the female psyche is not portrayed as well as say a film by Amy Heckerling. But this film does no such thing and is really a movie about people being thrown away and then climbing back up to the top.In conclusion, I will say that this is not an outstanding or impressive movie, and though entertaining after the first few minutes, it is nothing that I will really talk about that much.

evanston_dad A goofy comedy designed as a star vehicle for its three leading ladies, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler.Is it a good movie? Not really. But does that matter? Not really. It mostly succeeds based on the sheer talent of the three actresses involved, who could probably make a movie about the invention of barbed wire funny if they had to.I don't know that this movie presents a very flattering image of middle-aged women, but since middle-aged women seem to be the ones who most love this film, if they don't mind, why should I? Grade: B