Sex and the City: The Movie
Encyclopedia
Sex and the City is a 2008 American
blue romantic comedy
film adaptation
of the HBO comedy series of the same name
(itself based on the novel of the same name by Candace Bushnell
) about four female friends: Carrie Bradshaw
(Sarah Jessica Parker
), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall
), Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis
), and Miranda Hobbes
(Cynthia Nixon
), dealing with their lives as single women in New York City
. The series often portrayed frank discussions about romance and sexuality.
The world premiere took place at Poster Square, London
, on May 15,2008 and premiered on May 28, 2008 in the United Kingdom and May 30, 2008 in the United States. A sequel
, Sex and the City 2
, was released in 2010.
(Sarah Jessica Parker
), Samantha (Kim Cattrall
), Charlotte
(Kristin Davis
) and Miranda
(Cynthia Nixon
) walking through New York City and a recap of what happened in the TV series as well as what happened between the season six finale and the film. It then jumps to Carrie and Big
(Chris Noth
) viewing apartments with the intention of moving in together. Carrie falls in love with a penthouse
suite far from their price range, which Big immediately agrees to pay for. However, Carrie experiences doubts over the wisdom of this arrangement, explaining that they are not married, and as such she would have no legal rights to their home in the event of a separation. She offers to sell her own apartment, and quelling her fears, Big suggests that they get married.
Samantha
(Kim Cattrall
) has relocated her business to Los Angeles
to be close to Smith (Jason Lewis
), who is now a prime-time television star. She finds her five-year-old relationship humdrum and yearns for her old life—especially after witnessing the public sexcapades of Dante, the hot new neighbor. She takes every opportunity to fly East to be with the other girls.
Miranda
(Cynthia Nixon
) finds that balancing her home, work, and social life ever the more difficult, and confesses to the girls that she hasn’t had sex with Steve
(David Eigenberg
) in six months. She is devastated when Steve reveals he has slept with another woman, and immediately separates from him.
After an argument with Steve at the rehearsal dinner, Miranda, still upset about Steve's indiscretion, tells Big bluntly that he and Carrie are crazy to be getting married, as marriage ruins everything. On the day of the ceremony, Big cannot go through with it, but repeated attempts to telephone Carrie fail. A devastated Carrie flees the wedding. Big changes his mind and intercepts Carrie as he sees her limousine drive away. Carrie furiously attacks Big with her bouquet while he earns scathing looks from Miranda and Charlotte. The four women subsequently take the honeymoon that Carrie had booked to Mexico
, where they de-stress and collect themselves.
Upon her return to New York City
, Carrie hires an assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson
), to help her move back into her old apartment and manage her administration. Charlotte learns she is pregnant after a visit to her doctor. Miranda eventually confesses to Carrie about what happened during the night of the rehearsal dinner, and the two have a brief falling out. After reflecting on the argument she had with Carrie, Miranda agrees to attend couples counseling with Steve, and they are eventually able to reconcile. Samantha begins over-eating to keep from cheating on Smith with Dante, but eventually realizes that their relationship is simply not working, and that she needs to put herself first. The two break up, and she moves back to New York. Charlotte for several months is concerned that something might happen to the baby, because she feels her life seems to be too perfect.
A surprise encounter with Big at a restaurant leaves Charlotte so outraged that she goes into labor. Big drives her to the hospital, and waits until baby Rose is born, hoping to see Carrie. Harry passes on the message that Big would like her to call him, and that he has written to her frequently, but never received a reply. Carrie searches her correspondence, before realizing that Louise has kept his e-mails password-protected from her, after Carrie earlier announced she wished to sever all communication with him. She finds that he has sent her dozens of letters copied from the book she showed him in the weeks before their wedding, Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1, culminating with one of his own where he apologizes for screwing it up and promises to love her forever.
One hour before the locks are due to be changed on their shared penthouse apartment, Carrie travels to the home Big had bought for them to collect a pair of blue Manolo Blahnik
shoes she had left there. She finds Big in the walk-in closet he had built for her, and the moment she sees him, her anger at his betrayal dissipates. She runs into his arms and they share a passionate kiss. After they have spent the final hour in their apartment together making up, talking and apologizing to one another, Big proposes to Carrie properly, using one of her diamond-encrusted shoes in place of a ring. They later marry alone, in a simple wedding in New York City Hall, with Carrie dressed in the original dress she had bought in a vintage shop and the blue Manolos. After Big kisses the bride, he whispers into her ear "Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours," a line by Ludwig van Beethoven
Carrie read to him from Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1 earlier in the film. They hold a get-together at a local diner with their friends. The film ends with the four women around a table in a restaurant, sipping cosmopolitans
, and celebrating Samantha's fiftieth birthday, with Carrie making a toast
to the next fifty.
' s run in February 2004, there were indications of a movie being considered following the series. HBO announced that Michael Patrick King
was working on a possible script for the movie which he would direct. Later that year, Kim Cattrall
declined to work on the project citing reasons that the script and the start date were overly prolonged and she decided to take other offers at hand. As a result, the immediate follow-up idea for the movie were dropped.
It was in mid-2007 that the plans for making the movie were announced again. This reportedly resulted after Cattrall's conditions being accepted along with a future HBO series.
In May 2007 the project was halted after HBO decided it was no longer in a position to finance the movie on its own. The project was pitched within the Time Warner family (owners of HBO) and was picked by sister concern New Line Cinema
.
In February 2007 it was officially announced that a sequel will be made including all four actresses and writer-director Michael Patrick King.
The locations included a number of places around Manhattan
and a certain portion was shot in Steiner Studios
and Silvercup Studios
. The shooting was continually interrupted by paparazzi
and onlookers with the security and police authorities employed in order to control the crowd.
Efforts were taken in order to keep the plot of the film in secrecy, including shooting multiple endings.
As a defense strategy, scenes shot in public or in presence of number of extras were termed by Ryan Jonathan Healy and the main cast as "dream sequences."
Patricia Field
, who created costume designs for the series, also undertook the job in the film.
Field has stated that she initially was ambivalent to do the film, for monetary and creative reasons.
Field rose to fame particularly after designing for the series from 1998 to 2004, wherein she popularized the concept of using designer clothes with day-to-day fashion.
While dressing the characters for the film, Field decided to stay clear from the latest fashion trends defining the characters and instead focused on the evolution of individual character and the actor portraying it, over the last four years. While Samantha's dressing was influenced by American TV soap opera Dynasty
(see Nolan Miller
), Jackie Kennedy was the inspiration for Charlotte
's clothes. Miranda
, according to Field, has evolved the most from the series in terms of fashion. This was influenced significantly by development in actress Cynthia Nixon in past years.
. The soundtrack includes new songs by Fergie
and Jennifer Hudson
(who plays Carrie's assistant in the film).
The film's soundtrack debuted at #2 on the Billboard
200
, the highest debut for a multi-artist theatrical film soundtrack since 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin'
, and debuting at #6 on the UK Albums Chart
, selling to date more than 55,000 copies.
A second soundtrack, Sex and the City: Volume 2, was released on September 23, 2008, coinciding with the film's DVD release, featuring the British singers Estelle, Craig David
, Mutya Buena
and Amy Winehouse
. It also featured Janet Jackson
, Ciara
, and Elijah Kelley
.
in London
's Leicester Square
to the audience of 1700.
It was next premiered at Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
on May 15.
The film had its New York City premiere at Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.
The film recorded the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy and for a romantic comedy, and also for a film starring all women. As of March, 2010, the film has grossed $152,647,258 at the US and Canadian box office, and $262,605,528 in other markets, bringing the worldwide total gross revenue to $415,252,786, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy of 2008.
reported that 49% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 173 reviews with the consensus that "Sex and the City loses steam in the transition to the big screen, but will still thrill fans of the show
."
Metacritic
gave the film a normalized average score of 53% based on 38 reviews.
Brian Lowry of Variety
said the film "...feels a trifle half-hearted", while Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times
stated "[the film] tackles weighty issues with grace but is still very funny". She praised Michael Patrick King's work saying very few movies "are willing to go to such dark places while remaining a comedy in the Shakespearean sense".
Colin Bertram of the New York Daily News
dubbed the film a "great reunion", and was happy with the return of "The 'Oh, my God, they did not just do that!' moments, the nudity
, the swear
ing, the unabashed love of human frailty and downright wackiness".
The Chicago Tribune
s Jessica Reeves described it as "Witty, effervescent and unexpectedly thoughtful."
Michael Rechtshaffen at The Hollywood Reporter
praised the performances of the four leading ladies and said the film kept the essence of the series, but resembled a super-sized episode.
Manohla Dargis
of The New York Times
found the film "a vulgar, shrill, deeply shallow — and, at 2 hours and 22 turgid minutes, overlong — addendum to a show", while The Daily Telegraph
s Sukhdev Sandhu panned the film saying "[the ladies] have become frozen, Spice Girls
-style types - angsty, neurotic, predatory, princess - rather than individuals who might evolve or surprise us". Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail
slammed the film commenting on lack of script and adding that the characters "don't perform so much as parade, fixed in their roles as semi-animated clothes hangers on a cinematic runway". He gave the film zero stars out of four. Anthony Lane
, a film critic for The New Yorker
since 1993, called the film a "superannuated fantasy posing as a slice of modern life"; he noted that "almost sixty years after All About Eve
, which also featured four major female roles, there is a deep sadness in the sight of Carrie and friends defining themselves not as Bette Davis
, Anne Baxter
, Celeste Holm
, and Thelma Ritter
did—by their talents, their hats, and the swordplay of their wits—but purely by their ability to snare and keep a man....All the film lacks is a subtitle: "The Lying, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe
."
Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek
speculated that some of the criticism for Sex is derived possibly from sexism
: "when you listen to men talk about it (and this is coming from the perspective of a male writer), a strange thing happens. The talk turns hateful. Angry. Vengeful. Annoyed...Is this just poor sportsmanship? I can't help but wonder—cue the Carrie Bradshaw voiceover here—if it's not a case of 'Sexism in the City.' Men hated the movie before it even opened...Movie critics, an overwhelmingly male demographic, gave it such a nasty tongue lashing you would have thought they were talking about an ex-girlfriend...The movie might not be Citizen Kane
—which, for the record, is a dude flick—but it's incredibly sweet and touching."
The movie featured on worst of 2008 lists including that of The Times
, Mark Kermode
, The New York Observer, The Tart
and The Daily Telegraph
.
released a DVD and Blu-ray release of Sex and the City: The Movie on September 23, 2008. There are two versions of the film released in the US on home video. There is a standard, single disc theatrical cut (the version seen in theaters) which comes in fullscreen or widescreen (in separate editions). Both discs are the same, except for the movie presentation. The only features are an audio commentary, deleted scene
s, and a digital copy
of the film. Also released on the same day as the standard edition is the two-disc special edition, which adds six minutes of footage to the film, along with the commentary from the standard edition DVD and a second disc that contains bonus features, as well as a digital copy of the widescreen theatrical version of the film. The only version of the film released on Blu-Ray is the two-disc extended cut, which is identical to the DVD version of the extended cut.
On December 9, 2008 New Line Home Entertainment
released a third edition of Sex and the City: The Movie. This edition is a 4-disc set entitled Sex and the City: The Movie (The Wedding Collection). The 4-disc set features the previously released extended cut of the film on the first disc, the second disc has the bonus features from the extended cut and three additional featurettes, the third disc holds even more special features, and the fourth is a music CD with songs inspired by the movie, including the alternative mix of Fergie's "Labels or Love
" from the beginning of the film. The set also comes with an exclusive hardcover book, featuring photos and quotes from the movie, and a numbered certificate of authenticity in a pink padded box.
A fourth edition was also released in Australia. This set contained the two discs from the Sex and the City: The Movie Special Edition and a bonus 'Sex and the City Inspired' Clutch Bag. This clutch being black in colour in a tile or snake skin material.
The DVD has reached the #1 on the UK DVD Top Chart and is the fastest selling DVD release of 2008 in the UK, selling over 920,000 copies in one week. It is way ahead of the 700,000 copies sold for Ratatouille which was, prior to Sex and the City' s release, the best selling DVD of 2008 in the UK. Although the record has since been beaten by Mamma Mia!
The sequel officially began filming on September 1, 2009 and will continue until the end of 2009. Photos of all four leading women filming scenes around New York together and separately have emerged, featuring present-day scenes as well as a range of looks believed to be flashbacks from the earlier years of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte's long-standing friendships. Images of Samantha in a wedding dress have also been released. Additionally, scenes featuring prominent characters such as Mr. Big, Magda, Smith Jerrod, Steve Brady and the children of Miranda and Charlotte have been filmed and photographed.
Oscar-winner Penélope Cruz
has been reported to appear briefly as a banker. In September 2009, American singer/actress Liza Minnelli
confirmed to several media outlets that she will be appearing in a cameo role and that singer/actress Barbra Streisand
will also appear. Singer/actress Bette Midler
has been photographed on set and was speculated to play the role of Carrie's mother, which she denied, stating she was on the set to support her daughter who was working on the film's production. Teen pop star Miley Cyrus
will have one scene where she appears at the premiere of Smith Jerrod's new film, wearing the same dress as Samantha. On October 17 several pictures of Miley filming the scene surfaced online.
Kristen Davis revealed to MTV that the second Sex and the City film will be shorter than the first (which ran for over 2.5 hours) and feature fewer costume changes. However, she states that the production is bigger and that the cast and crew have been working long hours to ensure a quality outcome.
Filming progressed throughout late 2009 in September, October, November and December, with location shoots around New York City and internal shoots in New York City's Silvercup Studios (where the first film and television series were filmed). During these months, the main cast and crew (including all four leading ladies) spent six weeks in Morocco shooting pivotal scenes for the film. Fan-favourite John Corbett was seen on location in Morocco, confirming his speculated involvement in the film as Aidan, who was last seen in 2003 in the television show's sixth season. However, Corbett told Access Hollywood that he wasn't even in Morocco at the time of the filming and that the pictures were taken out of context.
Teen Choice Awards
Satellite Awards
People's Choice Awards
National Movie Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
Costume Designers Guild Awards
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
blue romantic comedy
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
film adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of the HBO comedy series of the same name
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
(itself based on the novel of the same name by Candace Bushnell
Candace Bushnell
Candace Bushnell is an American author and columnist based in New York City. She is best known for writing a column that was anthologized in a book, Sex and the City, which in turn became the basis for a popular television series and its subsequent film adaptations.-Personal life:Bushnell was born...
) about four female friends: Carrie Bradshaw
Carrie Bradshaw
Carrie Preston is the fictional narrator and lead character of the HBO sitcom/drama Sex and the City, portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. She is a semi-autobiographical character created by Candace Bushnell, who published the book Sex and the City, based on her own columns in the New York...
(Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
), Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis
Kristin Davis
Kristin Landen Davis is an American actress.She first rose to prominence and achieved fame for playing the role of Charlotte York Goldenblatt on HBO's Sex and the City. She has achieved success appearing in roles in film and television.-Early life and education:Davis was born in Boulder, Colorado...
), and Miranda Hobbes
Miranda Hobbes
Miranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television comedy series Sex and the City and subsequent movies. She is portrayed by actress Cynthia Nixon.-Character analysis:...
(Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
), dealing with their lives as single women in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The series often portrayed frank discussions about romance and sexuality.
The world premiere took place at Poster Square, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on May 15,2008 and premiered on May 28, 2008 in the United Kingdom and May 30, 2008 in the United States. A sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2
Sex and the City 2 is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Michael Patrick King. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Sex and the City, which is based on the HBO TV series of the same name....
, was released in 2010.
Plot
Set four years after the events of the series finale, the film begins with a montage of CarrieCarrie Bradshaw
Carrie Preston is the fictional narrator and lead character of the HBO sitcom/drama Sex and the City, portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. She is a semi-autobiographical character created by Candace Bushnell, who published the book Sex and the City, based on her own columns in the New York...
(Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
), Samantha (Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
), Charlotte
Charlotte Goldenblatt
Charlotte Goldenblatt, is a fictional character on the HBO-produced television series Sex and the City. She is portrayed by actress Kristin Davis.-Character information:...
(Kristin Davis
Kristin Davis
Kristin Landen Davis is an American actress.She first rose to prominence and achieved fame for playing the role of Charlotte York Goldenblatt on HBO's Sex and the City. She has achieved success appearing in roles in film and television.-Early life and education:Davis was born in Boulder, Colorado...
) and Miranda
Miranda Hobbes
Miranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television comedy series Sex and the City and subsequent movies. She is portrayed by actress Cynthia Nixon.-Character analysis:...
(Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
) walking through New York City and a recap of what happened in the TV series as well as what happened between the season six finale and the film. It then jumps to Carrie and Big
Mr. Big (Sex and the City)
"Mr. Big" is a fictional character in the HBO series Sex and the City, portrayed by Chris Noth. The character's name is mentioned in the pilot episode but not used throughout the series until the last episode, when his first name is shown on Carries mobile. His full name is John James Preston...
(Chris Noth
Chris Noth
Christopher David "Chris" Noth is an American actor. He is known for long-running television roles as Det. Mike Logan on the police procedural and legal drama television series, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been...
) viewing apartments with the intention of moving in together. Carrie falls in love with a penthouse
Penthouse apartment
A penthouse apartment or penthouse is an apartment that is on one of the highest floors of an apartment building. Penthouses are typically differentiated from other apartments by luxury features.-History:...
suite far from their price range, which Big immediately agrees to pay for. However, Carrie experiences doubts over the wisdom of this arrangement, explaining that they are not married, and as such she would have no legal rights to their home in the event of a separation. She offers to sell her own apartment, and quelling her fears, Big suggests that they get married.
Samantha
Samantha Jones
Samantha Jones is the name of:* Samantha Jones * Samantha Jones, British singer* Samantha Jones , a character on the TV show Sex and the City* Sam Jones , a character on the TV show Doctor Who...
(Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
) has relocated her business to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to be close to Smith (Jason Lewis
Jason Lewis
Jason Lewis is an American actor and former fashion model. He appeared on the May 2008 cover of Men's Fitness.-Early life:...
), who is now a prime-time television star. She finds her five-year-old relationship humdrum and yearns for her old life—especially after witnessing the public sexcapades of Dante, the hot new neighbor. She takes every opportunity to fly East to be with the other girls.
Miranda
Miranda Hobbes
Miranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television comedy series Sex and the City and subsequent movies. She is portrayed by actress Cynthia Nixon.-Character analysis:...
(Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
) finds that balancing her home, work, and social life ever the more difficult, and confesses to the girls that she hasn’t had sex with Steve
Steve Brady
Steven 'Steve' Brady is a fictional character on HBO series, Sex and The City, played by David Eigenberg.-Background:Introduced in the second season, Steve is a bartender who has an unconventional on-again, off-again relationship with Miranda throughout the remainder of the series.-Season...
(David Eigenberg
David Eigenberg
David Eigenberg is an American actor. He is known for his role of Steve Brady on the HBO comedy Sex and the City.-Personal life:Eigenberg was born in Long Island, New York and grew up in Naperville, Illinois...
) in six months. She is devastated when Steve reveals he has slept with another woman, and immediately separates from him.
After an argument with Steve at the rehearsal dinner, Miranda, still upset about Steve's indiscretion, tells Big bluntly that he and Carrie are crazy to be getting married, as marriage ruins everything. On the day of the ceremony, Big cannot go through with it, but repeated attempts to telephone Carrie fail. A devastated Carrie flees the wedding. Big changes his mind and intercepts Carrie as he sees her limousine drive away. Carrie furiously attacks Big with her bouquet while he earns scathing looks from Miranda and Charlotte. The four women subsequently take the honeymoon that Carrie had booked to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where they de-stress and collect themselves.
Upon her return to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Carrie hires an assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
), to help her move back into her old apartment and manage her administration. Charlotte learns she is pregnant after a visit to her doctor. Miranda eventually confesses to Carrie about what happened during the night of the rehearsal dinner, and the two have a brief falling out. After reflecting on the argument she had with Carrie, Miranda agrees to attend couples counseling with Steve, and they are eventually able to reconcile. Samantha begins over-eating to keep from cheating on Smith with Dante, but eventually realizes that their relationship is simply not working, and that she needs to put herself first. The two break up, and she moves back to New York. Charlotte for several months is concerned that something might happen to the baby, because she feels her life seems to be too perfect.
A surprise encounter with Big at a restaurant leaves Charlotte so outraged that she goes into labor. Big drives her to the hospital, and waits until baby Rose is born, hoping to see Carrie. Harry passes on the message that Big would like her to call him, and that he has written to her frequently, but never received a reply. Carrie searches her correspondence, before realizing that Louise has kept his e-mails password-protected from her, after Carrie earlier announced she wished to sever all communication with him. She finds that he has sent her dozens of letters copied from the book she showed him in the weeks before their wedding, Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1, culminating with one of his own where he apologizes for screwing it up and promises to love her forever.
One hour before the locks are due to be changed on their shared penthouse apartment, Carrie travels to the home Big had bought for them to collect a pair of blue Manolo Blahnik
Manolo Blahnik
Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE, , is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand.-Biography:Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and born and raised in the Canary Islands , Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris...
shoes she had left there. She finds Big in the walk-in closet he had built for her, and the moment she sees him, her anger at his betrayal dissipates. She runs into his arms and they share a passionate kiss. After they have spent the final hour in their apartment together making up, talking and apologizing to one another, Big proposes to Carrie properly, using one of her diamond-encrusted shoes in place of a ring. They later marry alone, in a simple wedding in New York City Hall, with Carrie dressed in the original dress she had bought in a vintage shop and the blue Manolos. After Big kisses the bride, he whispers into her ear "Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours," a line by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
Carrie read to him from Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1 earlier in the film. They hold a get-together at a local diner with their friends. The film ends with the four women around a table in a restaurant, sipping cosmopolitans
Cosmopolitan (cocktail)
A cosmopolitan is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed lime juice or sweetened lime juice. Informally, it is referred to as a Cosmo.-History:...
, and celebrating Samantha's fiftieth birthday, with Carrie making a toast
Toast (honor)
A toast is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. The term may be applied to the person or thing so honored, the drink taken, or the verbal expression accompanying the drink. Thus, a person could be "the toast of the evening," for whom someone "proposes a toast"...
to the next fifty.
Main
- Sarah Jessica ParkerSarah Jessica ParkerSarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
as Carrie BradshawCarrie BradshawCarrie Preston is the fictional narrator and lead character of the HBO sitcom/drama Sex and the City, portrayed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. She is a semi-autobiographical character created by Candace Bushnell, who published the book Sex and the City, based on her own columns in the New York... - Kim CattrallKim CattrallKim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
as Samantha Jones - Kristin DavisKristin DavisKristin Landen Davis is an American actress.She first rose to prominence and achieved fame for playing the role of Charlotte York Goldenblatt on HBO's Sex and the City. She has achieved success appearing in roles in film and television.-Early life and education:Davis was born in Boulder, Colorado...
as Charlotte York Goldenblatt - Cynthia NixonCynthia NixonCynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
as Miranda HobbesMiranda HobbesMiranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television comedy series Sex and the City and subsequent movies. She is portrayed by actress Cynthia Nixon.-Character analysis:... - Chris NothChris NothChristopher David "Chris" Noth is an American actor. He is known for long-running television roles as Det. Mike Logan on the police procedural and legal drama television series, Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as Big on Sex and the City. For the latter role, he has been...
as John James "Mr. Big" PrestonMr. Big (Sex and the City)"Mr. Big" is a fictional character in the HBO series Sex and the City, portrayed by Chris Noth. The character's name is mentioned in the pilot episode but not used throughout the series until the last episode, when his first name is shown on Carries mobile. His full name is John James Preston... - Jennifer HudsonJennifer HudsonJennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
as Louise, Carrie's assistant - David EigenbergDavid EigenbergDavid Eigenberg is an American actor. He is known for his role of Steve Brady on the HBO comedy Sex and the City.-Personal life:Eigenberg was born in Long Island, New York and grew up in Naperville, Illinois...
as Steve BradySteve BradySteven 'Steve' Brady is a fictional character on HBO series, Sex and The City, played by David Eigenberg.-Background:Introduced in the second season, Steve is a bartender who has an unconventional on-again, off-again relationship with Miranda throughout the remainder of the series.-Season... - Jason Lewis as Smith Jerrod
Recurring
- Evan HandlerEvan HandlerEvan Handler is an American actor who is best known for playing Harry Goldenblatt, Charlotte's divorce attorney and later husband, on Sex and the City, and Charlie Runkle, Hank's comically bumbling friend and agent, on Californication.-Early life:Handler was born in New York City, the son of Enid...
as Harry Goldenblatt - Willie GarsonWillie GarsonWillie Garson is an American character actor. He has appeared in over 50 movies, usually playing minor roles...
as Stanford Blatch - Mario CantoneMario CantoneMario Cantone is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, with numerous appearances on Comedy Central including Chappelle's Show. He also played Anthony Marentino on Sex and the City...
as Anthony Marantino - Lynn CohenLynn CohenLynn Cohen is an American actress. She is probably best known for playing Magda in the HBO series Sex and the City and the 2008 film of the same name. She has also played Judge Elizabeth Mizener several times on Law & Order, and has appeared in the movies Munich, Vanya on 42nd Street, Synecdoche,...
as Magda - Candice BergenCandice BergenCandice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
as Enid Frick - Annaleigh AshfordAnnaleigh AshfordAnnaleigh Ashford is an American actress known for her Broadway credits in Wicked, Legally Blonde, and Hair.-Early life:Annaleigh Ashford was born Annaleigh Swanson in Denver, Colorado to Holli Swanson, a gym teacher...
as Spoiled Label Queen - André Leon TalleyAndré Leon TalleyAndré Leon Talley is the former American editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, listed as Contributing Editor in the April 2010 masthead. Talley has been a front-row regular at fashion shows in New York, Paris, London and Milan for more than 25 years...
(cameoCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
) as VogueVogue (magazine)Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
magazine executive - Joseph Pupo as Brady Hobbes, Miranda and Steve's son
- Alexandra and Parker Fong as Lily Goldenblatt, Charlotte and Harry's daughter
- Gilles MariniGilles MariniGilles Marini is a French actor. He is known for having appeared in Sex and the City: The Movie and in the American TV show Brothers & Sisters as Luc Laurent.-Life and career:...
as Dante - Monica MayhemMonica MayhemMonica Mayhem is an Australian pornographic actress and exotic dancer and singer....
as Dante's Lover #1 - Julie HalstonJulie HalstonJulie Halston is an American actress and comedian.-Life and career:Halston was born Julie Abatelli in Suffolk County, New York, and raised in Commack, Long Island. She is the daughter of Julia Madeline "Dolly" , a teacher's assistant, and Rudolph "Rudy" Abatelli, who worked in tobacco sales...
as Bitsy von Muffling - Daphne Rubin-VegaDaphne Rubin-VegaDaphne Rubin-Vega is a dancer, singer, and actress. She is best known for originating the role of Mimi Marquez in the Broadway musical Rent, and the role of Lucy, in the Off-Broadway play Jack Goes Boating.-Biography:Rubin-Vega was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Daphine Vega, a...
as Baby-voiced girl - Ben RindnerBen RindnerBen Rindner is an American actor who has appeared in film, including in Don't Burn and the film version of Sex and the City.Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, he graduated from Ocean Township High School and resides in Hollywood, California. In 2010, Rindner was involved in a traffic accident...
as Waiter
Development
At the end of Sex and the CitySex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
Michael Patrick King
Michael Patrick King is an American director, writer and producer for television shows.-Life and career:King was born to an Irish American family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and was raised as a Roman Catholic...
was working on a possible script for the movie which he would direct. Later that year, Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
declined to work on the project citing reasons that the script and the start date were overly prolonged and she decided to take other offers at hand. As a result, the immediate follow-up idea for the movie were dropped.
It was in mid-2007 that the plans for making the movie were announced again. This reportedly resulted after Cattrall's conditions being accepted along with a future HBO series.
In May 2007 the project was halted after HBO decided it was no longer in a position to finance the movie on its own. The project was pitched within the Time Warner family (owners of HBO) and was picked by sister concern New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
.
In February 2007 it was officially announced that a sequel will be made including all four actresses and writer-director Michael Patrick King.
Filming
The film was prominently shot in New York between September-December 2007.The locations included a number of places around Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and a certain portion was shot in Steiner Studios
Steiner Studios
Steiner Studios is the largest film and television production studio complex outside of Hollywood. Steiner Studios offers of soundstages, with air conditioning and power infrastructure, and an additional of offices, dressing and make-up rooms, mill shops, spray booths, prop lock-ups, etc. All...
and Silvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios
Silvercup Studios is the largest film and television production facility in New York City. Located in the neighborhood of Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, the studio complex has been operating since 1983 in the former Silvercup Bakery building...
. The shooting was continually interrupted by paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
and onlookers with the security and police authorities employed in order to control the crowd.
Efforts were taken in order to keep the plot of the film in secrecy, including shooting multiple endings.
As a defense strategy, scenes shot in public or in presence of number of extras were termed by Ryan Jonathan Healy and the main cast as "dream sequences."
Costumes
As in the TV series, fashion played a significant role in plot and production of the movie. Over 300 ensembles were used over the course of entire film.Patricia Field
Patricia Field
Patricia Field is an American costume designer, stylist and fashion designer.-Life and career:Field was born in 1941 in New York City to Greek and Armenian parents, who emigrated from Lesvos, Greece. She was raised in Astoria, Queens and has claimed credit for inventing the modern legging for...
, who created costume designs for the series, also undertook the job in the film.
Field has stated that she initially was ambivalent to do the film, for monetary and creative reasons.
Field rose to fame particularly after designing for the series from 1998 to 2004, wherein she popularized the concept of using designer clothes with day-to-day fashion.
While dressing the characters for the film, Field decided to stay clear from the latest fashion trends defining the characters and instead focused on the evolution of individual character and the actor portraying it, over the last four years. While Samantha's dressing was influenced by American TV soap opera Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
(see Nolan Miller
Nolan Miller
Nolan Miller is an American fashion designer and television costume designer best known for his work on the long-running 1980s series Dynasty, its spin-off series The Colbys and the 1991 miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. He collaborated on many projects with television producers Aaron Spelling and...
), Jackie Kennedy was the inspiration for Charlotte
Charlotte Goldenblatt
Charlotte Goldenblatt, is a fictional character on the HBO-produced television series Sex and the City. She is portrayed by actress Kristin Davis.-Character information:...
's clothes. Miranda
Miranda Hobbes
Miranda Hobbes is a fictional character on the American HBO television comedy series Sex and the City and subsequent movies. She is portrayed by actress Cynthia Nixon.-Character analysis:...
, according to Field, has evolved the most from the series in terms of fashion. This was influenced significantly by development in actress Cynthia Nixon in past years.
- The iconic and glamorous wedding dress was made by Vivienne WestwoodVivienne WestwoodDame Vivienne Westwood, DBE, RDI is a British fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.-Early life:...
. - The tutu outfit that Carrie models for the other girls is the same outfit she wears on the show's credits.
- Carrie's assistant, Louise, rents her designer handbags from Bag Borrow or Steal.
- Hats for Vivienne Westwood in the film are made by Prudence MillineryPrudence MillineryPrudence, designer for Prudence Millinery, designs and makes couture hats for major designers all over the world.- A brief history :Prudence was born in 1963 in New-York, USA. A graduate of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and a former assistant buyer for the Associated Merchandising...
. - H. Stern loaned more than 300 pieces of jewelry to the film.
- Costumes were also selected from collections by haute coutureHaute coutureHaute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
designer Gilles MontezinGilles MontezinGilles Montezin is a French clothing designer well-known for his elegant haute couture style. His clothes have been worn by various high-profile celebrities and featured in films such as Sex and the City and Confessions of a Shopaholic....
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released May 27, 2008 by New Line RecordsNew Line Records
WaterTower Music is an American record label owned by Time Warner and operates as a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Founded to release movie soundtracks, the label has grown beyond this initial purpose and has built a roster of indie rock acts such as The Sounds, OFFICE, Robbers on High...
. The soundtrack includes new songs by Fergie
Stacy Ferguson
Stacy Ann Ferguson , better known by her stage name Fergie, is an American singer-songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She was a member of the children's television series Kids Incorporated and the girl group Wild Orchid. She is the female vocalist for the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas...
and Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Hudson
Jennifer Kate Hudson is an American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in 2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of American Idol coming in seventh place...
(who plays Carrie's assistant in the film).
The film's soundtrack debuted at #2 on the Billboard
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, the highest debut for a multi-artist theatrical film soundtrack since 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (soundtrack)
Get Rich or Die Tryin': Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture is the soundtrack by G-Unit Records to the 2005 film Get Rich or Die Tryin. In December 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album platinum...
, and debuting at #6 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, selling to date more than 55,000 copies.
A second soundtrack, Sex and the City: Volume 2, was released on September 23, 2008, coinciding with the film's DVD release, featuring the British singers Estelle, Craig David
Craig David
Craig Ashley David is an English singer and songwriter. He has released five studio albums: Born to Do It, Slicker Than Your Average, The Story Goes..., Trust Me, Signed Sealed Delivered and a Greatest Hits album...
, Mutya Buena
Mutya Buena
Rosa Isabel Mutya Buena is an English recording artist who rose to fame as a member of girl group the Sugababes. With the Sugababes, Buena had four UK number one singles, an additional six top-ten hits and three multi-platinum albums. After leaving the group in December 2005, she released her...
and Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
. It also featured Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, Ciara
Ciara
Ciara Princess Harris , known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she traveled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer, Jazze Pha...
, and Elijah Kelley
Elijah Kelley
Elijah Kelley is an American actor, singer, and dancer. Kelley has appeared in the films Take the Lead and 28 Days , and co-starred in the musical film re-adaptation of Hairspray , in which he portrayed the character Seaweed J...
.
Score
In December 2008, the orchestral score for the film was released, Sex And The City - The Score, containing 18 tracks of original score composed, co-orchestrated, and conducted by Aaron Zigman. Whilst the order of the tracks does not correspond directly to the order that the score is heard in the film, the score soundtrack contains almost every single piece of score that is present in the film.Premiere
The film's international premiere took place on Monday, May 12, 2008 at Odeon West EndOdeon West End
The Odeon West End is a cinema on the south side of Leicester Square, London. It contains two screens—screen 1 seats 500 and screen 2 seats 832 . Both house large screens in comfortable auditoria...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Leicester Square
Leicester Square
Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...
to the audience of 1700.
It was next premiered at Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on May 15.
The film had its New York City premiere at Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.
Box office
The film has experienced commercial success. Opening in 3,285 theaters, the film made $26.93 million in the US and Canada on its first day. The three-day opening weekend total was $57,038,404, aggregating $17,363 per theater.The film recorded the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy and for a romantic comedy, and also for a film starring all women. As of March, 2010, the film has grossed $152,647,258 at the US and Canadian box office, and $262,605,528 in other markets, bringing the worldwide total gross revenue to $415,252,786, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy of 2008.
Critical response
The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 49% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 173 reviews with the consensus that "Sex and the City loses steam in the transition to the big screen, but will still thrill fans of the show
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
."
Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the film a normalized average score of 53% based on 38 reviews.
Brian Lowry of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
said the film "...feels a trifle half-hearted", while Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
stated "[the film] tackles weighty issues with grace but is still very funny". She praised Michael Patrick King's work saying very few movies "are willing to go to such dark places while remaining a comedy in the Shakespearean sense".
Colin Bertram of the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
dubbed the film a "great reunion", and was happy with the return of "The 'Oh, my God, they did not just do that!' moments, the nudity
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
, the swear
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
ing, the unabashed love of human frailty and downright wackiness".
The Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
s Jessica Reeves described it as "Witty, effervescent and unexpectedly thoughtful."
Michael Rechtshaffen at The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
praised the performances of the four leading ladies and said the film kept the essence of the series, but resembled a super-sized episode.
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
found the film "a vulgar, shrill, deeply shallow — and, at 2 hours and 22 turgid minutes, overlong — addendum to a show", while The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
s Sukhdev Sandhu panned the film saying "[the ladies] have become frozen, Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
-style types - angsty, neurotic, predatory, princess - rather than individuals who might evolve or surprise us". Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
slammed the film commenting on lack of script and adding that the characters "don't perform so much as parade, fixed in their roles as semi-animated clothes hangers on a cinematic runway". He gave the film zero stars out of four. Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane is a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Personal life:Lane lives in Cambridge with Allison Pearson, a British writer and former Daily Mail columnist...
, a film critic for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
since 1993, called the film a "superannuated fantasy posing as a slice of modern life"; he noted that "almost sixty years after All About Eve
All About Eve
All About Eve is a 1950 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on the 1946 short story "The Wisdom of Eve", by Mary Orr.The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star...
, which also featured four major female roles, there is a deep sadness in the sight of Carrie and friends defining themselves not as Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons , The Razor's Edge , All About Eve and The Ten Commandments .-Early life:...
, Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...
, and Thelma Ritter
Thelma Ritter
Thelma Ritter was an American supporting and character actress from the 1940s until her death in 1969.-Early life:...
did—by their talents, their hats, and the swordplay of their wits—but purely by their ability to snare and keep a man....All the film lacks is a subtitle: "The Lying, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Published in 1950 and set circa 1940, it is the first-published book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series'...
."
Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
speculated that some of the criticism for Sex is derived possibly from sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
: "when you listen to men talk about it (and this is coming from the perspective of a male writer), a strange thing happens. The talk turns hateful. Angry. Vengeful. Annoyed...Is this just poor sportsmanship? I can't help but wonder—cue the Carrie Bradshaw voiceover here—if it's not a case of 'Sexism in the City.' Men hated the movie before it even opened...Movie critics, an overwhelmingly male demographic, gave it such a nasty tongue lashing you would have thought they were talking about an ex-girlfriend...The movie might not be Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
—which, for the record, is a dude flick—but it's incredibly sweet and touching."
The movie featured on worst of 2008 lists including that of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons...
, The New York Observer, The Tart
The Tart
-History:The precursor of The Tart was a Bristol University newspaper edited by Tobes Kelly in the first six months of 2007. The Tart was set up as a response to a perceived lack of variety in the student newspaper market, and Kelly's desire to revive student satire through enabling and encouraging...
and The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
.
Home video
New Line Home EntertainmentNew Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment is the home entertainment distribution arm of New Line Cinema, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, Misery was the first New Line Home Video release....
released a DVD and Blu-ray release of Sex and the City: The Movie on September 23, 2008. There are two versions of the film released in the US on home video. There is a standard, single disc theatrical cut (the version seen in theaters) which comes in fullscreen or widescreen (in separate editions). Both discs are the same, except for the movie presentation. The only features are an audio commentary, deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, and a digital copy
Digital copy
Digital Copy provides consumers who purchase a film on DVD or Blu-ray Disc with an additional, digital copy of the movie for devices capable of operating with a file in contrast to a DVD.-Features:...
of the film. Also released on the same day as the standard edition is the two-disc special edition, which adds six minutes of footage to the film, along with the commentary from the standard edition DVD and a second disc that contains bonus features, as well as a digital copy of the widescreen theatrical version of the film. The only version of the film released on Blu-Ray is the two-disc extended cut, which is identical to the DVD version of the extended cut.
On December 9, 2008 New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment is the home entertainment distribution arm of New Line Cinema, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, Misery was the first New Line Home Video release....
released a third edition of Sex and the City: The Movie. This edition is a 4-disc set entitled Sex and the City: The Movie (The Wedding Collection). The 4-disc set features the previously released extended cut of the film on the first disc, the second disc has the bonus features from the extended cut and three additional featurettes, the third disc holds even more special features, and the fourth is a music CD with songs inspired by the movie, including the alternative mix of Fergie's "Labels or Love
Labels or Love
"Labels or Love" is a song by American singer-songwriter Fergie, released on May 30, 2008, as the eighth overall single and the only single from the deluxe version of her first solo album The Dutchess...
" from the beginning of the film. The set also comes with an exclusive hardcover book, featuring photos and quotes from the movie, and a numbered certificate of authenticity in a pink padded box.
A fourth edition was also released in Australia. This set contained the two discs from the Sex and the City: The Movie Special Edition and a bonus 'Sex and the City Inspired' Clutch Bag. This clutch being black in colour in a tile or snake skin material.
The DVD has reached the #1 on the UK DVD Top Chart and is the fastest selling DVD release of 2008 in the UK, selling over 920,000 copies in one week. It is way ahead of the 700,000 copies sold for Ratatouille which was, prior to Sex and the City
Mamma Mia! (film)
Mamma Mia! is a 2008 musical/romantic comedy film adapted from the 1999 West End/2001 Broadway musical of the same name, based on the songs of successful pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson...
Sequel
After months of speculation, the cast confirmed in February 2009 that a sequel was in the works. Filming began in August 2009 for a May 27, 2010 release. On 25 February 2009, an article from the website Female First, suggested that stylist Patricia Field had not yet been contracted to work on the sequel and may have been axed, however pictures of the cast filming in New York City recently show Field with them on set. Jennifer Hudson has told sources that she would want to reprise her role as Carrie's assistant, Louise.The sequel officially began filming on September 1, 2009 and will continue until the end of 2009. Photos of all four leading women filming scenes around New York together and separately have emerged, featuring present-day scenes as well as a range of looks believed to be flashbacks from the earlier years of Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte's long-standing friendships. Images of Samantha in a wedding dress have also been released. Additionally, scenes featuring prominent characters such as Mr. Big, Magda, Smith Jerrod, Steve Brady and the children of Miranda and Charlotte have been filmed and photographed.
Oscar-winner Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
has been reported to appear briefly as a banker. In September 2009, American singer/actress Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
confirmed to several media outlets that she will be appearing in a cameo role and that singer/actress Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
will also appear. Singer/actress Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
has been photographed on set and was speculated to play the role of Carrie's mother, which she denied, stating she was on the set to support her daughter who was working on the film's production. Teen pop star Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
will have one scene where she appears at the premiere of Smith Jerrod's new film, wearing the same dress as Samantha. On October 17 several pictures of Miley filming the scene surfaced online.
Kristen Davis revealed to MTV that the second Sex and the City film will be shorter than the first (which ran for over 2.5 hours) and feature fewer costume changes. However, she states that the production is bigger and that the cast and crew have been working long hours to ensure a quality outcome.
Filming progressed throughout late 2009 in September, October, November and December, with location shoots around New York City and internal shoots in New York City's Silvercup Studios (where the first film and television series were filmed). During these months, the main cast and crew (including all four leading ladies) spent six weeks in Morocco shooting pivotal scenes for the film. Fan-favourite John Corbett was seen on location in Morocco, confirming his speculated involvement in the film as Aidan, who was last seen in 2003 in the television show's sixth season. However, Corbett told Access Hollywood that he wasn't even in Morocco at the time of the filming and that the pictures were taken out of context.
Awards and nominations
MTV Movie AwardsMTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
- 2008: Best Summer Movie So Far
Teen Choice Awards
Teen Choice Awards
The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
- 2008: Choice Movie Actress: Comedy
- 2008: Choice Movie: Chick Flick
Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
- 2008: Best Costume Design
People's Choice Awards
People's Choice Awards
The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble and Survivor magnate Mark Burnett...
- 2008: Favorite Cast
- 2008: Favorite Song from a Soundtrack
National Movie Awards
National Movie Awards
The National Movie Awards is a British movie awards ceremony broadcast by ITV in which the winners of the awards are chosen via popular vote. The awards were initiated in 2007 following the success of the National Television Awards, the highest-rating awards ceremony for television...
- 2008: Best Comedy
- 2008: Best Female Performance
Golden Trailer Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
The Golden Trailer Awards is an annual awards show that honors achievements in motion picture marketing, including film trailers, posters and television advertisements.- Overview :...
- 2008: Best Summer 2008 Blockbuster Poster
Costume Designers Guild Awards
- 2009: Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Contemporary