Monday, June 02, 2008

SEX AND THE CITY THE MOVIE - and I quote, "same old horse-shit", bigger screen

same old horse shit, bigger screenMy favourite line from all the reviews I've read of SEX AND THE CITY comes from Slant magazine. "The Sex and the City movie wouldn't be a Sex and the City movie without the horseshit—and at two-and-a-half hours, there's lots of it here." All I can say is, I concur!

I was never a fan of the series. And all these reviews by men saying "I'm not the target audience" are irritating me because they seem to be letting the movie off the hook. What they're saying is, "I don't get it, but maybe her in-doors will, so maybe I should pretend the jury's still out when in reality the verdict's in and it's the chair."

I didn't like SEX AND THE CITY because it didn't ring true. I couldn't relate. I have a bunch of female friends and we were/are single, high-earners who love shopping and hope for love, but "Love and Labels" did not make up the entirety of our lives. The TV show was praised for being candid and "pushing the envelope" about how female sexuality and friendship were presented on screen. Maybe so, but I still found the result reductionist and vaguely insulting. So the movie is just more of the same. More vapid consumerism, more unrealistic relationships and more adolescent humour and generally intolerable teenage behaviour. Presumably, fans of the TV series will be in heaven.

A few words about the translation of SEX AND THE CITY from the small screen to the big screen. In terms of substance the movie feels like a bunch of episodes strung together. The characters haven't really developed at all - same old problems with the possible exception of Miranda who gets a half-decent grown-up storyline. The film-makers try to make the product more politically correct by including an African-American character. Frankly this late inclusion in such a minor role merely highlights, rather than addresses, the show's narrow focus. Finally, there has been no attempt to change the look of the movie for the big screen. Fans will presumably approve. I, however, wished they'd actually bothered to exploit the extra possibilities the big screen gives you.

SEX AND THE CITY is released this weekend in the UK, US, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Singapore, Iceland, Italy and Turkey. It opens on the weekend of June 6th in Egypt, Belgium, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Portugal, South Korea, Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway. It opens on June 12th in Argentina and the Netherlands; on June 20th in Russia, Spain, Taiwan and Sweden; on June 17th in Chile; on June 27th in Venezuela and on August 2nd in Japan.

6 comments:

  1. Naturally you agree. You are a man of sense and taste. Notwithstanding your delusion about Austria winning Euro 2008.

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  2. I have never been called a man of sense and taste. By any woman! That's why I'm trying a serious relationship with football now.

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  3. Andreas, what's in your basement?

    BTW - I think the world would be a better place if every single Sex & the City fan died painfully overnight. I saw them in Leicester Square screaming stupidly and wanted to do them harm.

    At the end of the day, a movie about a bunch of wealthy childish women, living out their vapid empty lives, and confronting paint-by-numbers manufactured conundra in their love lives is bound to be tiresome. It's like an animated copy of Heat magazine. All those who say they "can totally relate to it, each episode is like part of their lives" should be bent over and rogered with a carving knife.

    I see a bathtub in hell's kitchen full of quick-lime.

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  4. So nice to see that fatherhood has mellowed you, Nik!

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  5. why do you express about the movie like it hurt your eyes while seeing it? does it make you more powerfull to express about it with violence and hate than expossing whatever you want to say? I do not relate to the movie in a complete way but it doesnt make it real to some people, and being materialist does not turn you empty, some people want to live a good life and that fullfits them... what a shame that you need to be aggresive to express an idea.

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