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Tony's Movie Review

Sex And The City

Year of Release: 2008
Genre: Comedy / Romance
Rating: Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity & language.
Director: Michael Patrick King
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Candice Bergen, Jennifer Hudson, Chris North, Willie Garson

Date Of Review: June 2008

Preliminary Comments:

I have no doubt that this film is going to make a lot of money at the box office. Women everywhere will go and see it. In fact I will go out on a limb and say that this film will be groundbreaking in that it will be the first time ever that a feature movie consisting of nothing more than a bunch of TV episodes strung together will make over $100 million at the US box office alone. That's right, it's a huge marketing machine aimed at women and pushed into overdrive. At 145 minutes the length of this film would equate to about 5 episodes of the TV series. You will need a lot of buttered popcorn, a packet of chips and an ice cream or two just to see your way through this one.

Being a male, I am not exactly jumping out of my seat to see this big screen continuation of the popular TV series but I will go anyway to find out what all the fuss is about. If I can somehow muscle my way through the crowds of women that I expect will be lined up around the block, I should have my review featured on this page by the end of the week. In the meantime I know a female who owns the entire TV series on DVD (a deluxe jewelry box edition DVD set with pull-out drawers, as I understand it) so I might borrow a couple of discs and check out a few episodes to prepare myself for the 145 minute onslaught. Stay tuned for my complete review coming hopefully sooner than later.

Full Movie Review:

2008’s Ultimate Chick flick is finally with us, a glossy big-budget version of the TV series that I am sure will put a smile on the face of female audiences everywhere. I heard that most of the sessions were booked out with large groups of females occupying 90% of the attendance so I strategically planned my visit and went to a session smack bang in the middle of the day with two heavily booked sessions either side. As it turned out I was one of 3 males in the entire cinema. “Sex And The City: The Movie” serves as candy for women, it’s a sugary concoction that provides some whimsical romance, light melodrama, some raunchy discussions, a few sex scenes with male nudity of course and plenty of fashion and glamour.

The film kicks off well with a neat credit sequence that brings us up to speed with the lives of the characters that female audiences everywhere have come to know and love. In fact the first 50 minutes or so were great (at this stage the film was sitting in the 3.5 star range), the next 40 minutes were okay but nothing to rave about (it dropped to 2.5 stars), the next 40 minutes seemed to be padding and somewhat boring (it really dropped its bundle and the star rating hit an all-time low of 2 stars). Amongst all this, the film somehow manages to redeem itself during the last 20 minutes or so when all plot elements come together nicely for a rather satisfactory conclusion (bringing it in to a neat 2.5 stars).

Let’s face it, this film really didn’t need a big screen cinema release; it could have so easily been released as a belated Season 7 of the TV series. All they needed was maybe another week or two’s work from the actresses and any deleted scenes left over they could have thrown into the episodes for padding. This big screen version is not as funny as the TV series and at almost 2 ½ hours it is definitely way too long for a feature film. The movie could have benefitted with a neat nip and tuck around the mid-section, in particular, the Jennifer Hudson subplot which could have so easily been left on the cutting room floor. Sadly, the inclusion of this subplot which sees Hudson playing Sarah Jessica Parker’s assistant achieves only one thing and that is to slow down the proceedings and bog everything down. The “Dreamgirls” star has been handed sub-par material that does nothing to enhance her Oscar status.

"Sex And The City: The Movie" might be the "female event movie of the year" but I believe for some people the idea of actually going to the film will be much better than the experience itself. While there are some great dialogue moments throughout, overall there isn’t enough creativity in the script department for it to fully soar to heights of hilarity. Unfortunately, the situations are at times a tad bland and lacking some of the sharpness of script that the TV series was well-known for. Sarah Jessica Parker’s narration is rife throughout, just like in the series but it’s not as crisp and it does get a little grating after a while. It is left to Kim Cattrall’s character Samantha to provide some of the films biggest laughs and ultimately she as in the series becomes the comedy relief.

With a word such as “Sex” in the title, I suppose the filmmakers of "Sex And The City: The Movie" felt obligated to randomly dump some sex scenes throughout the film for pacing, even if the central characters weren’t involved. Seeing Kim Cattrall sitting on her verandah salivating over her next-door neighbor stud while he is involved in a ménage–trios, is just one of Cattrall’s many look-ins. Later she even has a scene where she strips naked and covers herself from head to toe in sushi while waiting for her boyfriend to return home and you guessed it, he comes home alright, but much later than anticipated. The excessive nudity (male full frontal shower scene) and sex scenes (the ménage–trios) are somewhat unnecessary and rather pointless to the plot. It seems to me that they are a blatant exploitation of the movie marketing machine and nothing more than a visual cover for some of the inadequacies in the script department.

I suppose the big question on every female’s lips is whether Sarah Jessica Parker’s character will finally settle down. Will Carrie finally marry and who will it be? Maybe, Mr. Big or could it possibly be somebody else? I don’t really want to give anything away and spoil too much. I wouldn’t want to ruin a female fans enjoyment of what might be the most entertaining or should I say the most satisfying 2 ½ hours of her year, so let’s just say I will leave it at that. But one thing I will say is that designer brands and women’s fashion labels are plastered all over this thing and most women will lap up the 80 or so outfits that Sarah Jessica and her gal-pal’s parade in and out of. There is even a wedding dress montage that will make some females giddy with joy.

If you haven’t seen the series or aren’t fully in tune with the characters, or you’re male, it may be rather difficult to put yourself into the headspace of these ladies. Still, being a male who has somehow randomly watched an episode here and there over the years, including numerous episodes in the week leading up to this film just to prepare myself, I must admit that the characters and their situations have a certain watchability factor that surprisingly made me feel that I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more of the TV series. Strangely enough I can still remember watching part of the debut episode one night while I was on vacation in a hotel in Boston in the late 1990s. It didn’t blow me away at the time but I must say that I didn’t watch it too closely, although one thing that did stand out was that the dialogue was rather risqué at the time for a TV show.

Now with this new movie fresh in my mind, it is clear to me that these flawed women aren’t exactly the best role models on earth but their trials and tribulations in life, and love, both in and out of the bedroom have now become staples that have captured and maintained audience attention for many years. Its initial six year TV duration left an impact which was consolidated by the millions of hours of re-runs that have been broadcast across the globe in the 4-years since. Now, with the success of the new movie and the hint of possible sequels to follow this “Sex And The City” juggernaut for women is likely to continue capturing attention for many more years to come. Making the leap from the small screen to the big screen was no easy task, however, “Sex And The City” The Movie” still has plenty of sparkle but not quite enough to set the cinema alight for its entire duration. A 100 minute version would not only have been more watchable for both sexes but would have been more re-watchable in general. I think the term “less is more” applies here.

Cinema Synopsis:

The movie version of the long-running HBO series.

It's high heels and the high life for the fashionable foursome from SEX AND THE CITY. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis reprise their roles from the sassy and sexy series that made Manolo Blahnik a household name.

"Sex And The City" TV Series - Now Available on DVD:

Sex And The City: The Complete First Season (1998) [DVD]
All 12 episodes from season one--including "Sex and the City," "Models and Mortals," "Valley of the Twentysomethings," "The Monogamists," "Three's a Crowd" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"--are collected in a two-disc boxed set. 5 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French.

Sex And The City: The Complete Second Season (1999) [DVD]
All 18 episodes from season two--including "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," "The Awful Truth," "Four Women and a Funeral," "The Man, The Myth, The Viagra," "Games People Play" and "Ex and the City"--are collected in a three-disc boxed set. 9 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French.

Sex And The City: The Complete Third Season (2000) [DVD]
All 18 episodes from season three--including "Politically Erect," "Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl...," "Are We Sluts?," "The Big Time," "Sex and Another City" and "Hot Child in the City"--are collected in a three-disc boxed set. 9 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital Surround.

Sex And The City: The Complete Fourth Season (2001) [DVD]
All 18 episodes from season four--including "The Agony and the 'Ex'tasy," "The Real Me," "Sex and the Country," "Just Say Yes," and "I Heart NY"--are collected in a three-disc boxed set. 9 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital Surround; Subtitles: English, French.

Sex And The City: The Complete Fifth Season (2002) [DVD]
All eight episodes from season five--including "Anchors Away," "Luck Be an Old Lady," "Cover Girl," "Critical Condition," and "I Love a Charade"--are collected in a two-disc boxed set. 4 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; audio commentary; featurette; biographies.

Sex And The City: Season Six, Part One (2003) [DVD]
The first 12 episodes from season six--including "To Market, To Market," "Great Sexpectations," "The Post-It Always Sticks Twice," "Boy, Interrupted" and "One"--are collected in a three-disc boxed set. 6 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.

Sex And The City: Season Six, Part Two (2004) [DVD]
The final eight episodes from season six--including "Let There Be Light," "The Ick Factor," "Catch 38," "Splat," and the two-part series finale, "An American Girl in Paris"--are collected in a three-disc boxed set. 4 1/2 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Surround, Spanish Dolby Digital stereo; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; deleted scenes; alternate endings.

Sarah Jessica Parker DVD Collection - Now Available:
Click here for Sarah Jessica Parker Movies on DVD

Kim Cattrall DVD Collection - Now Available:
Click here for Kim Cattrall Movies on DVD

Kristin Davis DVD Collection - Now Available:
Click here for Kristin Davis Movies on DVD

Cynthia Nixon DVD Collection - Now Available:
Click here for Cynthia Nixon Movies on DVD

More "Sex And The City" Cast Posters: