June
3
Reel Geezers Trash Sex and the City
While I have been enjoying more lively impassioned debates about the merits and weaknesses of Sex and the City in the past two days than I have in a long time about any movie, Marcia and Lorenzo--aka Reel Geezers--like nothing about it:
I think they betray their age here. (Marcia refers back to Sex and the Single Girl, while Lorenzo chides the women for not attending to Vietnam.) Sex and the City's four women, over 40 (Kim Cattrall's Samantha celebrates her 50th birthday in the movie), are sexy, lively, and funny. While there are fantastic elements to the movie (like the over-the-top fashion), the characters are nonetheless grappling with things women all deal with: romance and the lack thereof, sexuality, trust, betrayal, forgiveness, breakups, family, children and the lack thereof, commitment, and building relationships, to name a few.
Nora cried when Big disappointed Carrie. (She never cries at movies.) I choked up when Carrie goes to Miranda on New Year's Eve. (I'm an easy cry.) And yes, the poop and dog-humping jokes were silly and stupid, but the audience adored them. This is vulgar mainstream entertainment for women--it's not intended to be high-class brainy stuff.
It's fun debating when and how Miranda should have told Carrie about what she said to Big, whether Carrie should have forgiven him, and what dress she should have worn to her wedding. For those of us who got to know these characters--Entertainment Weekly devoted some 50 pages of editorial space to its Sex and the City cover story, including reprises of each and every season--we care, we really care.
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I loved this review, actually. I found them charming. When Marcia, at the end, after they've spent 8 1/2 minutes lambasting the movie for being shallow, says, tongue completely in cheek, "It's very upsetting to have spent $8.75 on a saturday morning, when I could have been shopping."
Priceless, to cop a phrase.
Posted by: Withnail | June 03, 2008 at 01:48 PM
The SEX movie was a HUGE disappointment, and I'm a big fan of the series.
Not just shallow, but terribly unfunny. None of the charm and laughs from the TV show. How many dog-humping jokes did they really have to show? Ugh.
Although, like you, I did like the New Year's Eve segment, the best in the film. Although, unlike you, I didn't cry.
Posted by: Dixon Steele | June 03, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Ageism has nothing to do with it. I have all the right issues for this movie, but couldn't care less about the characters, even when they were on the small screen, and I will not pay full retail to see it, even at a bargain duration of 2 and a half hours. For my money, I'd rather cry at Flight of the Red Balloon or Broken English; heck I even broke a tear at Iron Man's "my family is dead, I never said goodbye, we're partners, you're all I have too." Am agreeing with you about everything else -- the hunger, the phenom, the brilliant handling and delivery. Bravo, cudos, humanity served and stabbed, such is art. All eyes trained on week 2.
Posted by: T. Holly | June 04, 2008 at 09:12 AM
had great fun with SEX AND THE CITY, laughing and crying with the best of them. I we weren't even having a drinking party. Surprised nobody has been writing about that very wet social aspect of the film's audience. In my audience, on Monday, there was indication that men are trying it out as the male gender was laughing louder than the women. And to all these guys who say, " I wouldn't get near it" I ask "What? Beautiful women in great clothes...and often out of them. What's not to like?"
I don't even think the male-bashing is so harsh. Real men can take it.
Posted by: Gary | June 06, 2008 at 09:09 AM
Now that I know you guys have copped to it, I'm taking my Blahniks out of the closet and heading over to the theatre in search of... wisdom.
Posted by: tricia | June 06, 2008 at 01:32 PM
The writing for the movie was bad...could have been good but someone fumbled in a very bad way. I missed the originality, the creativity, the wit of the series; it was erased in the movie. I think the only reason the numbers are up is because fans of the show assumed the movie would have something in common with the series (and it could have)...but it didn't. Very disappointed. We were scammed, I think.
Posted by: Barbara | June 17, 2008 at 03:52 PM