So, have you had ‘SEX’ yet?

I just had it in a dark room full of strangers and I have to say; it was pretty good….

Last night, my roommate Sherryn and I went along to see Sex and The City on the big screen, a film I was understandably a little nervous about. Not because I have any apprehension to spending time with some of televisions most ground breaking and loveable female characters, quite the opposite. The series did a good job of wrapping things up at the end of its sixth season. It left it’s characters to continue their lives without an audience, but not without giving us all hope that they were going to be just fine almost immortalizing them in the minds of fans. When you decide to open that floodgate back up, all sorts of problems can arise.

Sex and The City begins with sweeping shots of the city scape, and incorporates scenes from the television series in a bizarre, almost Spiderman 3-esque, opening title sequence. The music blares and the characters are thrown at us in a way that seems almost unnatural, it is all just so over the top. My nerves had not been calmed yet. Translation onto the big screen is a difficult task, and it has to be handled very carefully. At first the film feels almost like a caricature of the series, almost resembling a parody with the characters and locations all seeming unnaturally buffed and shiny. With an over the top score and similar theatrics, it almost feels like Disney’s Sex and The City.

It is incredibly Hollywood, while the HBO series was not and it takes a little while before you can recognise the characters through their big budget, million dollar makeovers and realise that it is still them. It’s not just the four actresses sitting a room together, impersonating the icons that the made the show so popular to milk the chick flick cash cow, even though it does feel this way at first.

It’s a little hard to spoil the movie for you, but if you have somehow avoided the trailers, promotions, word of mouth, the media circus and other reviews…. Get over it. It’s the Sex and The City movie, not the new M Night Shamalan. They don’t all realize they are actually dead in the end or from another planet, so chill out. Nothing I say could shock you that much. The film follows Carrie Bradshaw as she spends the duration of the film running around in RIDICULOUS outfits, having her heart broken and lusting over a walk in wardrobe. Seriously, did I mention that some of the outfits are ridiculous? Like…. ‘just shut up and smile, the costume designer promises she isn’t pissing her pants’ ridiculous. I will give props to Sarah Jessica Parker who always manage to wear the sideshow-esque get ups as nobody else could, even if nobody else would.

The film hits a few darks points, a heartbroken Carrie Bradshaw unable to pull herself by her Monolo straps with a witty one liner or insightful analogy is a sight to be seen. American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson also appears as Carrie’s likeable yet somewhat unnecessary assistant. Kim Catrall is fantastic (as always) as Samantha, even if the toned down environment of the big screen keeps her a tad more demure than we are used to. Sex and The City does what fans want it to do, all while giving us some truly tear-jerking moments. It is a celebration of friendship, sex and love, but don’t worry…. If all that emotion gets a little too much for you, you’re probably only two minutes away from another montage of fashion frolic.