Just got back from Sex and the City midnight showing...

[Parks]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 4:23am

Just a quick blurb--some possible MINOR spoilers, nothing major.

I've only seen an episode or two of the show, but I decided to go see the movie because the previews made it look pretty enjoyable.

Well--it was definitely the most fun I've had in a movie theater in a long time, I'd say. The audience absolutely loved it. The movie keeps you entertained almost the whole time... except for a few scenes, around where Big and Carrie are lying in bed, reading the poetry. I started dozing off during that part...

The movie did a really nice job of setting up the story quickly so that newcomers to Sex and the City would get what was going on without dragging on. Anyone can see this movie and not be lost, whether they have seen the show or not. I wish that had been the case when I saw Chronicles of Narnia on Tuesday (yikes!).

Definitely go see it if you get a chance! As everyone has said, it has its flaws, but it is a very enjoyable adult movie. :)

Oh--and did I spot Annaleigh Ashford in there? Joanna Gleason as well!

[mauriposa]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 4:33am

Yes, you did, Parks. And Daphne Ruben Vega.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 4:35am

How was J-Hud? No one ever mentions her and that's partly the reason why I'm going. (Never seen the show.)

[mauriposa]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 4:37am

She was good. I think she made the most of her underdeveloped part.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 4:49am

Is it rather non-descript? I'm surprised her Oscar win isn't giving her any notable mention in the trailer/TV spots -- not even an "... and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson."

[westcoast_wannabe]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 5:58am

I’m a devout fan of the show, I own every season on DVD, and I loved the movie. I went to the midnight showing with my mom, who has never seen the show, and she loved it. Is the movie perfect? No, but it’s very enjoyable, and whether you’re a long time fan of the show or a newcomer you’re in for a good time at the movies. The movie was very satisfying, but it made me miss the TV show. I wouldn’t object to a sequel. I could sit through another 2hr installment of the lives of these four women. The final episode of the TV show felt like the perfect ending. This movie felt like the beginning of the next chapter.

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 9:06am

Plus the opening midnight showing of anything is always a blast

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 9:29am

Stephanie Zacharek pans it, but its a thoughtful and hilariously funny review

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 9:35am

Haven't seen it yet, but the NY Times gave it a blistering pan this a.m. I haven't seen the sometimes acid-tongued Ms. Dhargis in such a knot since she loathed NOTES ON A SCANDAL. She does seem to have strong ideas about how she wants women portrayed on the screen. The last line of the review -- which basically attacked Carrie's narcissism, vis a vis her fasion obsession -- invokes Obama buttons. Just bizarre (and, ahem, I'm an Obama supporter -- fightin' words at this board).

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 9:38am

An excerpt from Zacharek:

But no one here is more disappointing, or more frustrating, than Parker. Some of what goes wrong here isn't her fault: The movie's costumes have, once again, been scrounged up by the dread Patricia Field, who puts poor Carrie into a series of god-awful designer mishmashes that might have been tolerable on the small screen but that scream down at us like banshees from the big one. At first my date thought Carrie's dream wedding get-up (a Vivienne Westwood concoction that resembles Richard Dreyfuss' mashed-potato mountain in "Close Encounters," topped off with -- no lie -- a dead bird for a headdress) was an intentional joke, a nod to Elsa Lanchester in "Bride of Frankenstein." (It wasn't.) Later, Carrie ventures out alone on New Year's Eve in a silver sequined beanie that makes her look like a reject from the Sun Ra Arkestra. No actress, not even one with as trim a figure as Parker's, can survive these fashion horrors.

[Parks]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 10:47am

Ooh, was Daphne the woman in the bathroom?

Jennifer Hudson was great--very warm and she just makes you happy when she comes into a scene.

[jarretSF]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 11:57am

Daphne was the woman in the bathroom, credited in the end credits as "baby voiced woman"

Loved this movie at the advance screening on Tuesday and seeing it again tonight. :)

[Parks]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 12:20pm

I didn't know it was Daphne. It's funny--I turned to my friend and said, "She's like... a mix of Janet Jackson and Cyndi Lauper..."

Anyone else see it? Her speaking voice...

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 12:49pm

I think this film is critic proof. Especially for fans of the show. I loved it.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 12:55pm

"...a Vivienne Westwood concoction that resembles Richard Dreyfuss' mashed-potato mountain in "Close Encounters," topped off with -- no lie -- a dead bird for a headdress..."


LOL! Okay, I don't have a signature here, but if I did, that would probably be it.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:27pm

"I think this film is critic proof. Especially for fans of the show. I loved it. "

I think you are right, Jerby. It will make all of its money this weekened then when the DVD is released. But I predict a quick decline at the BO next week.

I am glad to hear it is satisfying the fans of the show. Now, let us hope X-Files can do the same!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:39pm

Yer right. Probably critic proof. But still, here's more Zacharek:


The writing doesn't serve Parker particularly well, either. Because Carrie is a very busy, very successful, but very disorganized New York writer, she decides she needs an assistant. The woman she hires, Louise (Jennifer Hudson, who gives a likable, openhearted performance), turns out to be a godsend to her. I'm sure the intention was to add a nonwhite character to the mix, and that's not a bad impulse -- especially if you were to imagine a smart, capable, witty black woman holding her own at the brunch table. (Not to mention the fact that even a fantasy vision of New York with so few characters of color is, in 2008, simply incomprehensible.)

But why make your only adult character of color a wise, capable servant girl? Carrie spends too much time beaming magnanimously at Louise. The effect, unintentional but not dismissible, is a kind of "Mammy, what would I ever do without you?" superiority. (Carrie also gives Louise, as a gift, one of the most hideous bags this side of colostomy paraphernalia.)

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:47pm

I had actually wondered about the implications of the only non-white character being in a servant-like role. SEX AND THE CITY is like Woody's movies, a narrow view of NY that is almost Eisenhower-era monochromatic. There were a few black men in the scenes with Cantone, but the show was about white people having white people problems. Hey, write what you know, but still, why is a fantasy show so about a very limited fantasy?

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 1:48pm

I saw it at midnight, too.

While it was so much fun and I enjoyed nearly every second of it, I have to say that I really like the way the final episode ended. I feel it was a stronger ending overall for the series than this film was.

*SPOILERS*

And it was too predictable. I have to say I was expecting for Aiden to come back and for Big to leave. I've always disliked Big. And I really don't like the way Samantha and Smith ended. Their ending in the final episode was so much stronger and more poignant.

So, while I enjoyed it a ton, it did just feel like a really long episode. Which is okay by me. But it concluded the series on a weaker note than the series finale, which was perfect.

And I actually -screamed- out, "Ah! Joanna!" when Joanna Gleason came on screen. I got more excited than I should have, I think.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:01pm

I'm sure as a self contained film, it may deserve all the scrutiny it seems to be getting.

But, I could care less about all of the critic and blogosphere analyzing.

It was a good time and fun seeing these characters again. I'm not going to put more to it then that. I'm not going to throw on my feminism glasses or my race glasses or my whatever else this film must be saying or doing wrong glasses. I just don't think it warrants all that.

I will say that I am tired of the double standards thrown at women. Especially women of age. I'm tired of these women's looks being insulted. I am sick of the term "cougars". Is there term for 40 something men getting their kicks? Would a George Clooney/Brad Pitt film of similar nature get all this nonsense?

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:03pm

Well said, JRB.

[robbiej]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:18pm

Not reading ANYTHING about it as I'm being taken for my birthday on Sunday. But did read jrb's post and I have two things to say:

1. Right on about the criticism's about the women's looks and the cougar phenomoenon. It makes me sick.

2. Could you let me know what it feels like to enter your mid-30's? I'm just wondering what to expect, and since you get there before me...

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:22pm

I hate robbiej!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:P

[robbiej]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:26pm

No...really...leaving your early 30's on the day the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets must be too much for you.

Shall I come over and hold a cold compress to your brow?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/30/08 at 2:29pm

LOL! I'm hoping they give me a bday present--a Clinton lead.

I want to add that I find it stunning the self sabotage of people in our society. I sat in front of a herd of obese queens nearing their 40s and they were the biggest criminals of cougar comments and ewwing any flab or flaws on the ladies.