"Sex And The City" (2008)

Rating: R (for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Directed By: Michael Patrick King

Written By: Candace Bushnell, Michael Patrick King

In Theatres: May 28, 2008

Runtime: 142 minutes

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Summary: 
Four years after the TV Series left off, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her lover, Big (Chris Noth), are in a committed relationship. Samantha (Kim Cattrall), having survived cancer, has a monogamous relationship with Smith Jerrod. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and her husband live on Park Avenue, and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), now in Brooklyn, feels the pressure of family life.

I really liked the opening of this film. It gave a quick and tasteful summary of where the characters are now, and how they got there, from the end of the TV Series. However. I’m sorry but that is where my enthusiasm for the film began and ended. 

Review: 

I LOVED the TV series. It was so, so good. I binge watched it this summer after getting the box set last Christmas. I was waiting until college was over so I could get into it properly. I watched series 1-6 in two weeks. I loved it. And in all honesty it has one of the most satisfying finales I’ve seen in a TV show, next to Friends(!) This is why I beseech everyone and anyone reading this who has not seen this movie – WATCH THE TV SERIES FIRST!!! I cannot stress this enough. Do not base any assumptions on this…excuse of a film. 

Why did Hollywood deem this script acceptable? Did the writers watch the series? Did they get to know the characters at all? I feel like they invented some facocta excuses for drama, creating situations that would have NEVER happened in the TV series. 

The fact that Carrie would not anticipate Big getting cold feet at the wedding? Come on! The man has always been a flight-risk!!! Yes this was heart-breaking when he decided he couldn’t do it. This was ridiculous enough, but the drama and devastation portrayed by Carrie was way over the top. She knew him. She had 10 years of experience. Am I heartless? I just don’t buy it. A whole lot of drama over nothing. 

The whole affair storyline with Steve? Complete bull****. I’m sorry but whatever about everything else that took place throughout the film, this was the one that really took the biscuit for me. No way in hell would this happen. No way. It's not in him. And he loved Miranda too much. Shame on the writers. 

All the film focused on were clothes, sex, shoes, dieting, body-image, affairs, holidays – patronising clichéd problems, blowing them up to the be all end all of life. What were the writers thinking?? It’s insulting. This was not what the TV show was about. 

What was so fantastic about the series was, the situations and opinions expressed in each episode were actually funny and actually cleverly written. It was about four smart women, three of whom had no interest in getting married. Their problems were down to earth, they felt real. The show discussed topics that were real like Samantha’s breast cancer (showing it at its scary and sad points, but also its plain inconvenient and sweaty moments), Miranda’s work vs family life (“How can I have this baby, I could barely make time for this appointment!”), as well as Charlotte’s infertility heartbreak, and Carrie’s inability to marry Aiden because marriage is a big life decision, not what soaps and mediocre shows and films have made it out to be. I am not Carrie’s biggest fan, but I respected her for that. 

In the films, however, the message is that the most important thing to women is getting ring no matter how belittling or degrading the method. The characters make jabs at one another in the film for being too old and needing to get married. The show never did that. It showed both sides of the argument and showed how it isn’t black and white and that there was no judgement for either decision. Maybe some people don’t want to get married. Maybe some people don’t want to have children. 

If this is supposed to be some kind of epilogue to the series’ finale, I’ve disregarded it. The series ended so perfectly, that is where it ends for me. I can’t count this film to mean anything. I’ve come to see that the people who think this film was good or enjoyed it, are people who never watched the TV series and it makes me really sad. 

I haven’t watched Sex And The City 2. I’m not going to dignify its plotline by watching it. I can’t wrap my head around what on earth the writers’ were thinking for that one. Standford and Anthony HATED each other in the TV show! Oh, but suddenly because they both happen to be gay they must get married now? Are they really that stuck for plot lines?? Good grief. 

Shame on Hollywood. 

Final Rating: 0/5 Stars 

TRAILER: