Sex and The City is about . . .

Sexy Scenes from Sex and The City

Is it about Sex, the City, Female comradery, fashion labels, love or happy endings?

What ever your take on the movie version of Sex and The City, it is certainly about the hype.

The stars of Sex and The City have a lock on this week early morning television shows from Today Show, The Early Show and Regis & Kelly, so there is no escaping Sex and The City.

Products or brand as they are known in the trade, will be featured prominently in the movie.

Not only will Samantha (Kim Cattrall) be driving a GLK luxury sport utility, but Mr. Big played by (Chris Noth) will be traveling around in an S-class limousine both from Mercedes-Benz which will also be featured in scenes revolving around Mercedes-Benz fashion week tents.

Of course, we know all fashionable and fit New York women are seen carrying around a bottle of water.

So, of course, water was a natural fit for this movie and Vitaminwater will be featured in the movie.

And, what fashionable woman would go out without a fashionable, designer labeled bag.

So it only natural that the company that make it affordable for every fashion conscious woman to rent a designer labeled bag Bag Borrow or Steal to be a sponsor.

The movie is definitely about fashions, and it is definitely receiving wide attention in the celebrity and fashion magazines.

Vogue featured Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover and also in a fabulous fashion spread shot around New York.

But most of all about the fashions.

Sex and The City will certainly be a chick flick, as the movie ticket site Fandango reported in their blog that many women seem to be planning to go in groups.

"We (Fandango) are getting a surprising number of requests for group ticket sales from women planning 'Sex and the City' get-togethers.

So it seems that Sex and The City will be a lady's night out movie.

According to Fandango survey only 6 percent said they were going with a man, so this is definitely a lady's night out type of movie.

Although the R rating will severely limit the teen audience as a parent or guardian must accompany those under 17.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the battle of the movie audiences shapes up, as the guy movie Indiana Jones which took in an estimated $311 million worldwide revenue this past weekend goes up against Sex and The City which will open in movie theatres on Friday May 30, with many theatres offering Thursday niter, midnight showings.

Sex and the City-2 - Movie Review

"Sex and the City" is, was and always will be for the fans. The first movie, like the raunchy HBO series on which it was based, could be appreciated on its own hedonistic terms, but "Sex and the City 2" -- an enervated, crass and gruesomely caricatured trip to nowhere -- seems conceived primarily to find new and more cynical ways to abuse the loyalty of its audience.

That is evident from the first strained moments, as the movie picks up the story of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) two years after the last film ended. Carrie, happily married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), has been feathering their handsome Upper East Side nest, while the others navigate motherhood, careers and menopause.

As the story takes them, inexplicably, to a freebie junket in Abu Dhabi, the script visits one indignity after another upon "the girls," from Miranda's desperate whoops of fake glee to convince herself she's having fun to Samantha's compulsive penchant for dirty puns.

While the show and first movie managed to thread a tricky needle between the traditionally girly concerns of clothes, shoes and romance and a far more sober, clear-eyed view of female solidarity and autonomy, "Sex and the City 2" uses feminist arguments to preempt the criticism it so richly deserves.

Thus Carrie & Co. can run amok in Abu Dhabi, dressed like the offspring of Barnum & Bailey and Alexis Carrington, making jokes about burqas and, in Samantha's case, engaging in exhibitionistic displays that border on the psychotic, but to disapprove of their behavior is tantamount to punishing female desire -- or, in the film's preferred trope, "silencing their voice."

The more strenuously "Sex and the City 2" tries to become a parable of trans-national sisterhood, the more patronizing and self-important the movie becomes, and the more its protagonists come to resemble shrill female impersonators. When Carrie expresses disbelief that a woman in full abaya can still enjoy a french fry, the veiled woman in question would be forgiven for taking in Carrie's own insane get-up and wondering who's the more sartorially oppressed.

Casting aside the filmmakers' breathtaking cultural insensitivity, their astonishing tone-deaf ear for dialogue and pacing, and their demented, self-serving idea of female empowerment, the biggest sin of "Sex and the City 2" is its lack of beauty. It's garish when it should be sumptuous, tacky when it should be luxe, wafer-thin when it should be whip-smart and sophisticated.

This movie makes a mockery of the surface pleasures that the original series could always be counted on to provide. The fans most likely will still flock to "Sex and the City 2," but they may feel as if they're being punished for their devotion.

* R. At area theaters. Contains strong sexual content and profanity. 140 minutes

Sex and the City-2 - Movie Review

"Sex and the City" is, was and always will be for the fans. The first movie, like the raunchy HBO series on which it was based, could be appreciated on its own hedonistic terms, but "Sex and the City 2" -- an enervated, crass and gruesomely caricatured trip to nowhere -- seems conceived primarily to find new and more cynical ways to abuse the loyalty of its audience.

That is evident from the first strained moments, as the movie picks up the story of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) two years after the last film ended. Carrie, happily married to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), has been feathering their handsome Upper East Side nest, while the others navigate motherhood, careers and menopause.

As the story takes them, inexplicably, to a freebie junket in Abu Dhabi, the script visits one indignity after another upon "the girls," from Miranda's desperate whoops of fake glee to convince herself she's having fun to Samantha's compulsive penchant for dirty puns.

While the show and first movie managed to thread a tricky needle between the traditionally girly concerns of clothes, shoes and romance and a far more sober, clear-eyed view of female solidarity and autonomy, "Sex and the City 2" uses feminist arguments to preempt the criticism it so richly deserves.

Thus Carrie & Co. can run amok in Abu Dhabi, dressed like the offspring of Barnum & Bailey and Alexis Carrington, making jokes about burqas and, in Samantha's case, engaging in exhibitionistic displays that border on the psychotic, but to disapprove of their behavior is tantamount to punishing female desire -- or, in the film's preferred trope, "silencing their voice."

The more strenuously "Sex and the City 2" tries to become a parable of trans-national sisterhood, the more patronizing and self-important the movie becomes, and the more its protagonists come to resemble shrill female impersonators. When Carrie expresses disbelief that a woman in full abaya can still enjoy a french fry, the veiled woman in question would be forgiven for taking in Carrie's own insane get-up and wondering who's the more sartorially oppressed.

Casting aside the filmmakers' breathtaking cultural insensitivity, their astonishing tone-deaf ear for dialogue and pacing, and their demented, self-serving idea of female empowerment, the biggest sin of "Sex and the City 2" is its lack of beauty. It's garish when it should be sumptuous, tacky when it should be luxe, wafer-thin when it should be whip-smart and sophisticated.

This movie makes a mockery of the surface pleasures that the original series could always be counted on to provide. The fans most likely will still flock to "Sex and the City 2," but they may feel as if they're being punished for their devotion.

* R. At area theaters. Contains strong sexual content and profanity. 140 minutes

Sex and the City-2 Performs better

So even if "Sex and the City 2" consisted of nothing but a two-hour fashion show, it would draw crowds. But it also has the returning cast members in fine comic form, and it has more cutting-edge humor than the first movie.

Critics will carp about the platitudes in the script and about the longueurs in the nearly two-hour opus, but for the core audience, there will be no complaints about too much of a good thing. This picture is going to be a smash when it opens on Thursday via New Line/Warner Bros.

Some of us who enjoyed the outrageous antics showcased in the HBO series created by Darren Star and executed in later years by Michael Patrick King (the writer-director of both films) found the first movie disappointingly bland. Instead of the bracing emphasis on sex, the focus shifted to less scintillating folderol about marriage. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) was jilted at the altar by her true love, Mr. Big (Chris Noth), but snared him in the end. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) also faced a crisis in her marriage but ended up in a clinch with hubby Steve (David Eigenberg).

The new movie begins two years later at a wedding -- a gay wedding (in Connecticut). But though the two grooms are pledging their devotion, the gals are learning that marital bliss is more elusive than the first movie implied.

Carrie and Big find themselves at odds over an issue that bedevils many couples: She loves to go out on the town, and he turns out to be a closet TV addict who wants to do nothing more than curl up on the couch watching old movies.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis) has achieved her dream life with two children, but the tots turn out to be maddening rather than adorable. Only Samantha (the consistently irresistible Kim Cattrall) remains defiantly single, waging her own personal war against menopause.

These wan domestic squabbles are merely prelude to the movie's major plot development. Samantha is approached by an Arab sheik to devise a PR campaign for his business enterprises, and he offers to fly her and her three gal pals on an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi. (These scenes were filmed in Morocco.) Even in an escapist fantasy, the spectacle of women sinking into this billionaire's paradise at a time of widespread economic hardship initially seems creepy and off-putting.

Soon, however, their Arab sojourn takes unexpected turns. First of all, Carrie encounters her old flame, Aidan (John Corbett), at the spice market, but even more importantly, she and her friends run up against the puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East. The rather scathing portrayal of Muslim society no doubt will stir controversy, especially in a frothy summer entertainment, but there's something bracing about the film's saucy political incorrectness. Or is it politically correct?

"SATC 2" is at once proudly feminist and blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers. Indicative of the film's contradictory stance is a scene in which the ladies perform a karaoke version of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" in an Abu Dhabi nightclub. An equally outrageous moment comes when the interlopers are rescued by a bunch of Muslim women who strip off their black robes to reveal the stylish Western outfits they are concealing beneath their discreet garb. These endearingly loopy scenes exhibit the tasteless humor that enlivened the TV series on its best nights.

King's script isn't always well-balanced. Carrie's minor marital problems are given way too much attention, whereas the intriguing dilemmas of Miranda and Charlotte are downplayed. Nixon and Davis do, however, share one marvelous scene in which they vent their dissatisfactions with motherhood. It also is a pleasure to see Cattrall flaunt her sexual imperatives in front of her Arab hosts. Noth and Corbett are so appealing that we can sympathize with Carrie's romantic confusion. Liza Minnelli, Miley Cyrus and Penelope Cruz show up for amusing cameos.

Technical credits are first-rate. Cinematographer John Thomas and production designer Jeremy Conway make the most of the exotic locations. Costume designer Patricia Field's outlandish creations will send many viewers to hog heaven. But it's hard to know what King and editor Michael Berenbaum were smoking when they let the 146-minute film drag on at least 40 minutes too long. Even with its excesses, Carrie and company's excellent Arabian adventure will leave viewers thinking and arguing as well as swooning over the digs and the rags.

Sex and the City-2 Performs better

So even if "Sex and the City 2" consisted of nothing but a two-hour fashion show, it would draw crowds. But it also has the returning cast members in fine comic form, and it has more cutting-edge humor than the first movie.

Critics will carp about the platitudes in the script and about the longueurs in the nearly two-hour opus, but for the core audience, there will be no complaints about too much of a good thing. This picture is going to be a smash when it opens on Thursday via New Line/Warner Bros.

Some of us who enjoyed the outrageous antics showcased in the HBO series created by Darren Star and executed in later years by Michael Patrick King (the writer-director of both films) found the first movie disappointingly bland. Instead of the bracing emphasis on sex, the focus shifted to less scintillating folderol about marriage. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) was jilted at the altar by her true love, Mr. Big (Chris Noth), but snared him in the end. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) also faced a crisis in her marriage but ended up in a clinch with hubby Steve (David Eigenberg).

The new movie begins two years later at a wedding -- a gay wedding (in Connecticut). But though the two grooms are pledging their devotion, the gals are learning that marital bliss is more elusive than the first movie implied.

Carrie and Big find themselves at odds over an issue that bedevils many couples: She loves to go out on the town, and he turns out to be a closet TV addict who wants to do nothing more than curl up on the couch watching old movies.

Charlotte (Kristin Davis) has achieved her dream life with two children, but the tots turn out to be maddening rather than adorable. Only Samantha (the consistently irresistible Kim Cattrall) remains defiantly single, waging her own personal war against menopause.

These wan domestic squabbles are merely prelude to the movie's major plot development. Samantha is approached by an Arab sheik to devise a PR campaign for his business enterprises, and he offers to fly her and her three gal pals on an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi. (These scenes were filmed in Morocco.) Even in an escapist fantasy, the spectacle of women sinking into this billionaire's paradise at a time of widespread economic hardship initially seems creepy and off-putting.

Soon, however, their Arab sojourn takes unexpected turns. First of all, Carrie encounters her old flame, Aidan (John Corbett), at the spice market, but even more importantly, she and her friends run up against the puritanical and misogynistic culture of the Middle East. The rather scathing portrayal of Muslim society no doubt will stir controversy, especially in a frothy summer entertainment, but there's something bracing about the film's saucy political incorrectness. Or is it politically correct?

"SATC 2" is at once proudly feminist and blatantly anti-Muslim, which means that it might confound liberal viewers. Indicative of the film's contradictory stance is a scene in which the ladies perform a karaoke version of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman" in an Abu Dhabi nightclub. An equally outrageous moment comes when the interlopers are rescued by a bunch of Muslim women who strip off their black robes to reveal the stylish Western outfits they are concealing beneath their discreet garb. These endearingly loopy scenes exhibit the tasteless humor that enlivened the TV series on its best nights.

King's script isn't always well-balanced. Carrie's minor marital problems are given way too much attention, whereas the intriguing dilemmas of Miranda and Charlotte are downplayed. Nixon and Davis do, however, share one marvelous scene in which they vent their dissatisfactions with motherhood. It also is a pleasure to see Cattrall flaunt her sexual imperatives in front of her Arab hosts. Noth and Corbett are so appealing that we can sympathize with Carrie's romantic confusion. Liza Minnelli, Miley Cyrus and Penelope Cruz show up for amusing cameos.

Technical credits are first-rate. Cinematographer John Thomas and production designer Jeremy Conway make the most of the exotic locations. Costume designer Patricia Field's outlandish creations will send many viewers to hog heaven. But it's hard to know what King and editor Michael Berenbaum were smoking when they let the 146-minute film drag on at least 40 minutes too long. Even with its excesses, Carrie and company's excellent Arabian adventure will leave viewers thinking and arguing as well as swooning over the digs and the rags.