Sex Returns to the City

The sassy, classy ladies return -- Pictures courtesy of New Line Cinema

by blogSpotter
Before launching into my movie review, I’d like to comment on a couple of other current events. The Democratic National Committee decided this weekend to count only half of the Florida/Michigan delegates much to the dismay of Clinton’s campaign. Clinton is challenging the ruling, and one can only hope that it goes the all the way to Denver. Speaking impartially of course. :-) Scott McClellan’s bombshell book, “What Happened”, is still causing reverberations. I had some sympathy for the man until I found out he may support Obama in 2008. Now the press hounds, talking heads and GOP haunchos will just have to have their way with him.

NBC's Today Show had a segment about SUV's this morning. A young man has tired of paying $80 every 3 days to fill his 2002 Ford Explorer. He tried to sell it, but can only get $3,000 -- half of it $6,000 Blue Book value. He owes $8,500 on the note. To all of of this I have to say, "Duh!" Why weren't Americans concerned all along about the extreme impracticality of these SUV's? They pollute and gobble other resources (steel, glass, plastics) in addition to gobbling oil. The gluttony of both the producers and consumers is meeting with its proper fate. It was "written in the wind" as the prophets of Gaia might say.

SEX (and the city)

I was too cheap to pay for HBO when this TV show was in its original run from 1998 to 2004. However, TBS graced us with back-to-back airings of the entire series (minus the R-rated scenes) in syndication, since 2004. Loosely based on Candace Bushnell’s New York Observer “Sex” column, SITC tells the story of four reasonably liberated career women who are navigating the social mores of the late 90’s. We have Charlotte, the sweet traditionalist, Miranda the cynical lawyer, Samantha the libertine publicist and Carrie the sensitive writer.

In its 6 year run, the show was actually about way more than merely sex – it was about life, career choices, friendship, priorities, aging and many other things. The show was seen as an estrogen-filled hour of female entertainment, but there is actually enough variant material that men could easily find it watchable too. In fact, there were dire predictions that only women would flock to the movie’s Dallas premiere. Wrongo – there were quite a few men (yes, a lot of them gay).

Speaking of the premiere, SITC just came back to us as a movie in 2008. It was a 4-year reunion with all our favorite characters and their boyfriends/husbands. The main plotline is a contrivance – Mr. Big gets cold feet and stands Carrie up at their overly orchestrated wedding ceremony. But overall, the real point is to get all these sassy ladies back in a trendy restaurant, wearing Vogue fashions and cracking wise. Hope I’m not spoiling to much to say that everything works out in the end. The only shocker was a fairly graphic scene of Steve and Miranda having make-up sex.

I saw the movie at the North Park AMC, and it was a boon to every business around. Luna, Kona Grill and TGIF were all having specials on Cosmopolitans and Skye Vodka. Every bistro was overflowing with boozy Carrie wannabe’s, tag-along boyfriends and gay men (maybe fulfilling the role of Sanford). SITC is a cultural touchstone – it says a lot about our evolving social and sexual world. The movie made for a rollicking Friday evening; a good time was had by all, catching up with old friends.

WEEKEND TAKE

SITC earned $55.7 million on its opening weekend -- roughly twice what distributors thought it would earn. To misquote Helen Reddy, "They are women hear them roar!". There is no shortage of chick flicks in Hollywood-land, but SITC probably strikes a note of savvy, stylish superficiality that other chick flicks miss. With this kind of money, Carrie may edge Rambo and Iron Man right out of the picture.

© 2008 blogSpotter