*** Official SEX AND THE CITY Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

This film runs kinda long at about 145 minutes, almost like they crammed half a season's worth of episodes into a film.

Charlotte's bits cracked me up. Carrie's issues almost sank some of the film, but thankfully a minor role by Jennifer Hudson brought in some energy and levity to her funk at the mid-way point of the film. Miranda's subplot felt a little forced, while Sam's arc ended up just right, given her character traits and inner persona.

Fans of the show will probably eat it up, but it does have some pacing issues, and the way the film was directed and shot wasn't all that removed from its television roots, which made for a not-so-cinematic viewing, but I guess it stays true to its TV roots and didn't stray too far to bring something new to the table, i.e., they played it safe in terms of cinematic stylings.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

 

[Chad R]

Yes, the film was a tad long. Michael Patrick King really needed an editor that would argue him more.

I actually thought Jennifer Hudson's character was wholly unnecessary, filling a role in Carrie's "recovery" the other girls should have filled, and her inclusion padded the runtime.

However, there were big laughs and the two break-up plots, that from the trailers I thought would be re-treading ground from the show, were actually handled with sincerity and aplomb.

I'd go so far as saying a B+.

 

[Sean Laughter]

As someone who loved Sex and the City, and counts the finale in my Top 5 list of best series finales, I did see the movie and enjoyed it.

However, it did have its share of problems - most of the ones I predicted it would have. Mainly, most of the threads you really cared about were wrapped up in such a satisfactory way in the series finale that there wasn't much new to ground to tread in the movie. Aside from one character's story everyone ends up with who they were with when the movie started, which is to be expected because I don't think the target audience would have wanted the results from the finale erased since they were really very satisfying if you followed the entire run of the series. The build up and emotion and last twenty minutes of the series finale is far more moving and emotional than the ending to the film, IMO.

I also felt the movie was directed pretty poorly and shot exactly like the show. There was nothing done with the cinematography to take advantage of the fact that they're working within a film. This is a particular sin since they're photographing New York City for crying out loud. Sex and the City also ended its run before many shows were shot in 16:9, so it was completely 4:3 all the way through its run, and Michael Patrick King took no advantage of the aspect ratio or the increased scope to at least make the movie LOOK bigger than a normal episode of the series. The conversations were shot just like the series, and it was overall just pretty boring to look at. I also noticed a boom mic in shots once or twice, which is pretty damn ridiculous in a high profile film (unless my local theater just had it matted wrong or something).

I did think it was interesting that they pretty much used the old proposed setup for the Samantha spin-off series for her character in the movie. However, it did make it annoying that every time she showed up in New York it had to be a big deal as if she stealthily flew in. I suppose this plot device did help keep Sarah Jessica and Kim Cattrall as far apart as the movie could allow though.

In any case, good for what it was. I think I'll probably buy it on Blu-Ray but choose to ignore its existence most of the time and consider the series finale the actual end of the series.

 

[TravisR]

This isn't really my type of movie (eventhough I've seen most, if not all, of the series) but I was taken to it and I have to say that I did enjoy myself. Anyone who hates the show is probably not going to like the movie but if you're 'forced' into going by your girl, you could do alot worse (like almost any PG-13 romantic comedy) in my mind.

Eventhough I completely understand the criticism, I kinda liked that they emulated the look of the show. This seemed like the type of TV series-to-movie where they didn't really need to make things huge. A movie like Serenity or The X-Files might benefit from a bigger canvas but since this was basically a two hour episode of the series, I like that they retained the series' look.

Yeah, that's actually your theater's fault.

 

[Shad R]

About 7 years ago I lived with a roomate who's girlfriend LOVED the show. So, every week, they'd watch it. While I never went out of my to watch it, when it was on, I'd stop and watch. The show was actually not as bad as I was led to believe, and some of the stuff was pretty funny and witty.
Which is why I gave this movie a chance. The reason the show worked was that it was fast paced, and only lasted 25 minutes. This 2 1/2 hour long bloated film started off pretty good, but started to drag out to the point I started checking my watch thinking "man, this just keeps going." While there were some funny parts, and few scenes of real emotion, as a whole it wasn't that great. The subplot with the new assistant felt really out of place and tacked on, and some of the scenes, like the fashion show or the storyline with Samantha's new nieghbor, and the dog just made this movie overstay it's welcome. Not to say I didn't enjoy some of it. I think Kristen Davis was the funniest member of the group, given the best lines, the funniest moments and was just plain the most enjoyable to watch. I give it a C+

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Sex and the City". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy