Sex and the City (Warning - fans are not going to like this)
If you have not already watched the movie Sex and the City 2, then do not read any further as the chances are after reading this that you never will. The following piece is full of spoiler alerts.
So like most woman my age I used to absolutely love the television series. It was edgy, funny, quirky, gave a fabulous insight into living in New York and best of all, people could relate to the characters (Who has never claimed to be a Carrie/Charlotte?).
I wasn't keen on the first movie as I felt that in order to make it suitable for a wider audience they had to play down a lot of the edginess that made Sex and the City what it was and instead of giving us four, sassy, sexy independent ladies, we were now watching characters that in my opinion had become a little bit like spoilt brats.
Amidst very, very mediocre reviews from friends and family, I decided to give the second movie a chance but came away feeling like a battery hen who has been force fed a truckload of corn.
Where do I start? What about the appalling gay wedding that the movie opened with? Apparently best gay friends are still the biggest fashion accessory this season "My gay best friend is marrying her gay best friend" and even though the two characters that were marrying had always hated each other and made for a completely unbelievable coupling, I decided to ignore that and just go with the flow as here was a monumental opportunity for the show that has always been wonderfully pro gay rights (one of the shows main writers and director Michael Patrick King is openly gay) to show millions of people across the world why gay men and woman deserve the right to marry. Oh, how they failed!
To be completely honest, I sort of enjoyed the wedding despite the fact that it was littered with gay innuendo and stereo type right from the start such as the swans and the all-male choir that were singing songs from the musicals and also the fact that Liza Minnelli was officiating the wedding(If you are gay then you surely love musicals and Liza minnelli don't you?). It was a little cheesy but the sort of wedding that would be a dream come true to actually be invited to.
I didn't even mind the constant "Could this wedding be any more gay?" refrain that intersperced the wedding; it was the fact that Anthony stated that Stanford was allowed throw this extravagant, over the top wedding and he was allowed to cheat. Do all gay men cheat?
This is just feeding all the anti-gay activests that beat on and on about the "Sanctity of marriage" and how gay people are unable to comprehend it. SATC writers- you should be ashamed!
And what spoilt little rich kids all of our girls have turned into. Poor, poor Carrie is married to her one true love. She lives in a fabulous New York apartment with a room bigger than my house that is just for her shoes. She has a new book published and then is invited on all expenses paid, $22,000 a night, free holiday in Abu Dhabi but because her husband likes to watch a bit of telly and order take out (She doesn't even have to cook!) and her book receives one bad review, she is devastated and forced to walk the beach in a rage of self pity and melancholy while her butler follows her with an umbrella.
Somehow, I'm finding it hard to relate to Carrie here.
Miranda. What a wonderful luxury it must to be able to just quit your job and head off on holidays with no worries as to where your next pay-check is coming from and all because your new boss holds his hand up to silence you when you are speaking. What happened to the strong, independent voice for woman everywhere? Miranda - bawl your boss out and threaten him with a sexual discrimination lawsuit if he doesn't start to behave himself.
Oh God and Samantha. I'm sorry, but she is not fabulous. Samantha looks like a sixty year old menopausal woman stuffed up to her eye balls with botox and hair dye. I actually started to feel a bit uncomfortable watching her make innuendo after innuendo about her out of control sex drive. What age will she be when it stops being funny? Who else found their face contorted in a bit of a grimace when she was applying cream to her lady bits with her knickers around her ankles in full view of her secretary? This would be considered a major physiological issue in need of serious help for anyone else.
The most believable part in the whole movie was when Charlotte locked herself in the pantry to escape her baby who would not stop crying. Ah finally! Something I can actually relate to I thought. Except- oh no- wait a minute; Is that a white valentino skirt that you are baking in? Who the hell bakes in designer clothes? And it is the red finger prints on her skirt that finally create her melt down and not her obnoxious child. Charlotte - you are a full time house wife with a wealthy, top-lawyer husband and you have a full time nanny (and don't get me started on the nanny's Irish accent or I will never stop). It's not quite living in a trailer park with six brats and cutting out food coupons now, is it?
Who else besides Carrie, would have a husband who is so incensed at her kissing an ex-boyfriend that she just happened to bump into at a spice market (please suspend all believability here) half way across the world, that he would go out and buy her a huge diamond ring to remind her of the value of marriage? Aw - the antidote to all cheating partners!
I also have to point out that as hilarious as Samantha's ostentatious sexual exhibition in the spice market was - the truth is that you do not walk into a country and loudly and blatantly shout out your opposition for their culture. The reality is that if this had really happened, she probably would have been beaten and killed (this scene took place during a manic rush to get Carries passport so that they could get to the airport on time because God forbid our spoilt little rich girls would have to ride in coach).
But true to American cheesy form, she is rescued by a group of woman who underneath their Burkas are wearing Louis Vuitton designer clothes and reading the same book that Samantha is back home. This was nothing more than a vomit inducing attempt to make the audience think "How insightful. we are not so different after all to these girls. We just live in a different part of the world." Pause while I gag!
I hate to be such a kill joy and it's not that I am not a huge fan. I still watch all the repeats of the TV series night after night and laugh every time. It was a brilliant show that in my opinion has just got greedy and is now trying to appeal to a wider, less intelligent market.
I guess I just miss my girls.
So like most woman my age I used to absolutely love the television series. It was edgy, funny, quirky, gave a fabulous insight into living in New York and best of all, people could relate to the characters (Who has never claimed to be a Carrie/Charlotte?).
I wasn't keen on the first movie as I felt that in order to make it suitable for a wider audience they had to play down a lot of the edginess that made Sex and the City what it was and instead of giving us four, sassy, sexy independent ladies, we were now watching characters that in my opinion had become a little bit like spoilt brats.
Amidst very, very mediocre reviews from friends and family, I decided to give the second movie a chance but came away feeling like a battery hen who has been force fed a truckload of corn.
Where do I start? What about the appalling gay wedding that the movie opened with? Apparently best gay friends are still the biggest fashion accessory this season "My gay best friend is marrying her gay best friend" and even though the two characters that were marrying had always hated each other and made for a completely unbelievable coupling, I decided to ignore that and just go with the flow as here was a monumental opportunity for the show that has always been wonderfully pro gay rights (one of the shows main writers and director Michael Patrick King is openly gay) to show millions of people across the world why gay men and woman deserve the right to marry. Oh, how they failed!
To be completely honest, I sort of enjoyed the wedding despite the fact that it was littered with gay innuendo and stereo type right from the start such as the swans and the all-male choir that were singing songs from the musicals and also the fact that Liza Minnelli was officiating the wedding(If you are gay then you surely love musicals and Liza minnelli don't you?). It was a little cheesy but the sort of wedding that would be a dream come true to actually be invited to.
I didn't even mind the constant "Could this wedding be any more gay?" refrain that intersperced the wedding; it was the fact that Anthony stated that Stanford was allowed throw this extravagant, over the top wedding and he was allowed to cheat. Do all gay men cheat?
This is just feeding all the anti-gay activests that beat on and on about the "Sanctity of marriage" and how gay people are unable to comprehend it. SATC writers- you should be ashamed!
And what spoilt little rich kids all of our girls have turned into. Poor, poor Carrie is married to her one true love. She lives in a fabulous New York apartment with a room bigger than my house that is just for her shoes. She has a new book published and then is invited on all expenses paid, $22,000 a night, free holiday in Abu Dhabi but because her husband likes to watch a bit of telly and order take out (She doesn't even have to cook!) and her book receives one bad review, she is devastated and forced to walk the beach in a rage of self pity and melancholy while her butler follows her with an umbrella.
Somehow, I'm finding it hard to relate to Carrie here.
Miranda. What a wonderful luxury it must to be able to just quit your job and head off on holidays with no worries as to where your next pay-check is coming from and all because your new boss holds his hand up to silence you when you are speaking. What happened to the strong, independent voice for woman everywhere? Miranda - bawl your boss out and threaten him with a sexual discrimination lawsuit if he doesn't start to behave himself.
Oh God and Samantha. I'm sorry, but she is not fabulous. Samantha looks like a sixty year old menopausal woman stuffed up to her eye balls with botox and hair dye. I actually started to feel a bit uncomfortable watching her make innuendo after innuendo about her out of control sex drive. What age will she be when it stops being funny? Who else found their face contorted in a bit of a grimace when she was applying cream to her lady bits with her knickers around her ankles in full view of her secretary? This would be considered a major physiological issue in need of serious help for anyone else.
The most believable part in the whole movie was when Charlotte locked herself in the pantry to escape her baby who would not stop crying. Ah finally! Something I can actually relate to I thought. Except- oh no- wait a minute; Is that a white valentino skirt that you are baking in? Who the hell bakes in designer clothes? And it is the red finger prints on her skirt that finally create her melt down and not her obnoxious child. Charlotte - you are a full time house wife with a wealthy, top-lawyer husband and you have a full time nanny (and don't get me started on the nanny's Irish accent or I will never stop). It's not quite living in a trailer park with six brats and cutting out food coupons now, is it?
Who else besides Carrie, would have a husband who is so incensed at her kissing an ex-boyfriend that she just happened to bump into at a spice market (please suspend all believability here) half way across the world, that he would go out and buy her a huge diamond ring to remind her of the value of marriage? Aw - the antidote to all cheating partners!
I also have to point out that as hilarious as Samantha's ostentatious sexual exhibition in the spice market was - the truth is that you do not walk into a country and loudly and blatantly shout out your opposition for their culture. The reality is that if this had really happened, she probably would have been beaten and killed (this scene took place during a manic rush to get Carries passport so that they could get to the airport on time because God forbid our spoilt little rich girls would have to ride in coach).
But true to American cheesy form, she is rescued by a group of woman who underneath their Burkas are wearing Louis Vuitton designer clothes and reading the same book that Samantha is back home. This was nothing more than a vomit inducing attempt to make the audience think "How insightful. we are not so different after all to these girls. We just live in a different part of the world." Pause while I gag!
I hate to be such a kill joy and it's not that I am not a huge fan. I still watch all the repeats of the TV series night after night and laugh every time. It was a brilliant show that in my opinion has just got greedy and is now trying to appeal to a wider, less intelligent market.
I guess I just miss my girls.
Well said, Rachael! They really have dumbed it down and completely lost the spark and wit of the series. I still thought it was fun but when you break it down I realise I was just waiting at each scene for Miranda to shout at her boss or Carrie to stop whining about trivia, which never happened. So nothing had any depth.
ReplyDeletewow is all i can say that is the longest rant evr but i culdnt dissagree more i thought the movie was excellent the fact that opposites attract how menopause effects women in different ways its simply brilliant i admit that the programmes are better but this is only because they were all young free and single but as life moves on so do they in an unbelievaly funny way samantha is fabulous even in her state carrie is always the same she worries about becoming a robot miranda hates her job and charlotte is finaaly understanding that a family is something she needs to work at because if you want a happily ever after you are damn well going to have to work your arse off to get it
ReplyDeleteIf you think that rant was long, you should read my one about Lost! :)
ReplyDelete