Sex and the City: The Movie

Sex and the City: The Movie

3 Stars

Remember how last week it pained me to rate Indiana Jones 4 so low at 3 stars? This week... it pains me more to rate Sex and the City so high at 3 stars. But it's not that I liked it. But from the completely objective film critic standpoint... it wasn't as completely terrible as I thought it was going to be.


Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristen Davis and Cynthia Nixon return as Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda in the spin off movie of the hit HBO series. What have they been doing in the four years since we last saw them? Finding love, starting families, pursuing careers. Lots of sex. Oh and Carrie's getting married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth).

Let me get the completely objective film critic stuff out of the way first. One problem in adapting a TV show for the big screen is overcoming the episodic nature of the show. The show was half an hour long. Writer/director Michael Patrick King had to stretch the already thin premise (as Brian Griffin once commented on an episode of Family Guy: "So... this show is about three whores and their grandmother?") from half an hour to a full TWO AND A HALF HOURS! What we were given was a sloppy, convoluted mess of a film that had little direction.

It was trying to take a cue from Love Actually by interweaving multiple story lines into one over all plot. But Love Actually was able to deftly maneuver between the several sub-plots. Sex and the City wasn't. There should have been one story that was the primary focus, not four (in a sense, five).

And the Cinderella subtext was either the worst analogy ever, or the worst deus ex machina ever, I have yet to decide, or even figure out, which it was.

I have caught a few episodes of the series. I will admit to that. And this film felt like nothing more than a really long episode. When it comes to cinematic versions of current or recent television shows, there needs to be some expansion on the world of the show. I had the same criticism for The Simpsons Movie, where it didn't "go as far" as it should have. Both flicks just felt like long episodes, there wasn't a real special cinematic quality to them.

On the plus, all involved put forth strong performances. Even if we're just talking an extended version of their TV characters. It worked to their advantage to do the movie so soon after the show had ended. They weren't too far removed from the characters. Particularly Parker and Noth, they slipped back into the characters and put forth some relatively compelling scenes.

But through it all... as a critic I'll give it props. It wasn't completely terrible. There is an audience for it. Women. The ladies will love this movie. And that's why it's a PERFECT girls night out movie. It is NOT a date movie, however. Ladies, leave your boyfriends/fiancees/husbands at home. Guys, go watch Indiana Jones.

As a guy myself, I'm pretty sure we're protected from this film by several parts of the Geneva Convention. For guys, there is nothing to like about this film. It's girls talking about girl stuff for two and a half hours. And it's not even interesting girl stuff.

I consider myself to be a relatively smart person. And it bugged me that the characters were so vapid and shallow. But beyond that, I don't know what infuriates me more: that there are people who are actually like that, or that there are people who want to be like that.

Like I said, completely objective critic P.O.V., ladies will love it, and the film is not without it's merits. But guys, seriously, avoid at all costs.

-Brodie Mann