Rating: NN
Sex And The City: Extended Cut (Alliance, 2008) D: Michael Patrick King, w/ Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall. Rating: NN DVD package: NN
I never liked the series. Mainly, that’s because I can’t look at Sarah Jessica Parker without seeing her as Bullwinkle the Moose in a Broadway musical, but also because the only moments I found funny were Kim Cattrall’s sexual shockers delivered while the girls were dishing over drinks.
The girls (Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon) are back together to help Carrie (Parker) through her big wedding to long-time boyfriend Mr. Big (Chris Noth doing cut-rate Cary Grant), but the sexual shockers are gone. In his smarmy commentary (largely devoted to pointing out the obvious), director Michael Patrick King tells us he thinks the girls have matured beyond that.
Which leaves us with about five funny lines and an insultingly thin plot. How thin? Mr. Big ditches the wedding. Given that he’s a big-deal Manhattan financier, his reason is 99 per cent patently unbelievable. Get the other 1 per cent from his line in the deleted scenes: he’s already been through two big weddings.
That leaves 150 minutes (seven more than the theatrical cut) of the fabulous life, which translates as clothes and chic watering holes. Apparently, that’s enough for the fans, who spent close to $200 million on tickets worldwide. Me, I was disappointed. Sure, the movie stops dead for three separate fashion shows, but the first and last are too short and only the middle has any life to it.
In the 18-minute costume doc, designer Patricia Field estimates that there were 300 costumes changes for the four women alone, but where’s the pop-up trivia track detailing labels and prices? The movie begs for it.
EXTRAS Disc one: Widescreen. English, French audio. English subtitles. Disc two: King and Parker conversation, fashion doc, deleted scenes with and without commentary, theme song recording doc. Widescreen. English, French audio. English subtitles.
