Sci-Fi & Fantasy - DVD

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Daryl Hannah finally hits the big time in this HBO remake 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

"Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman" finds Daryl Hannah in the titular role of this HBO remake of the 1958 exploitation cult classic. Director Christopher Guest goes whole heartedly for a retro Fifties look in this 1993 which tries to take the best parts (so to speak) of the original and enlarge the rest into a feminist allegory. Once again the story is about poor little heiress Nancy Archer (Hannah), who has been abused all of her life by men from her father, Hamilton Cobb (William Windom) to her swarmy husband, Harry (Daniel Baldwin), who is devoting his limited attention to local bad girl, Honey Parker (Cristi Conaway). Out driving around in the desert to relieve her sexual frustration, Nancy encounters a flying saucer that zaps her, thereby starting the growth process that will level off at the 50 ft. level (note: the original is "Foot" but the remake is "Ft."). The teleplay by Joseph Dougherty (who did his first script for "thirtysomething") borrows as much from "The Feminist Manifesto" as it does from "King Kong." What becomes important is that not even the U.S. military is going to stop Nancy from getting some much needed attention from hubby Harry. Sure, she could do a lot better than Harry, but that is not suppose to be the final payoff of this little feminine fantasy.

This remake does not have the same sort of tacky charm that makes the original so compelling. But there is still the great unanswered question from both of these films as to how the giant woman's underwear manages to keep up with her growth spurt. Daryl Hannah is a lot angrier than Allison Hayes was in the original, and it was the latter's decided sense of disinterest during the final rampage (along with the cloth bikini) that made it one of the enduring images of Fifties science fiction. Ultimately, this is more Guest's film as director, because the entire art direction and visual style of the film is as much a homage to the genre in the Fifties as the original storyline. The remake does not stand alone because there is too much that works off of the original to allow that to happen, so you have to have seen the 1958 version to fully appreciation this one. The main thing is that "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman" does not take itself seriously, and that makes up for a lot of the film's shortcomings.

Editorial Review:

Nancy archer has had an alien encounter - and its left her 50 feet tall! now she sees the men in her life from a new angle - looking down on them - and its time to fight back. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Daryl Hannah William Windom Run time: 90 minutes Rating: R Director: Christopher Guest