Review : Sex And The City

This review is weeks and weeks overdue. But I just had to wait, because I realized that some people (in some certain countries) have yet to watch it. But I think now it's safe to review it now.

Warning: Spoilers below.

Ok, you all know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE television. And you all know I LOVE LOVE Sex and The City (SATC). And you all know I HEART NYC.

So, this movie was so so so anticipated.

And I must say, it delivered quite nicely. The actors had been playing these characters for 6 seasons, so, there wasn't much of a surprise on how they'd approach the movie. But, it was still delightful to watch.

Ok, so SATC The Movie was set, I think, 4 years after the last thing that happened in the series - where Mr. Big and Carrie had that Paris thing going. Back then, I wasn't an avid follower - I did miss several episodes and I wasn't like one of those freaks that would die if I didn't know what happened in an episode or two. But the hype to this movie was so good, I just had to watch it.

So, a few things to mention about the movie, but not too much as to spoil it for some who have yet to see it:

• Basically the movie revolved around the 4 main characters and the issues they were facing. Carrie's issue was her relationship with Mr. Big, their engagement and eventual wedding. Miranda's was with her lack of sex with husband Steve - he later had an affair because of that - causing Miranda to separate from him. Samantha's issue came with her frustration at the fact that she's the only one not living in New York as well as her lack of sex - from anyone, especially her live in boyfriend, Smith. Charlotte's role in the whole movie was more of comic relief and the one that bonded all the characters together. However, her main issue was of her pregnancy.
  

• Only other country to be featured in the movie was Mexico. And in that country, Charlotte had a hard time because she thought it was iffy - as she said, refusing to eat or drink the food served there ". . . but, it's MEXICO." I was later labeled as Charlotte by the others, as I was the only one that didn't want to eat at the food court after the movie was over. She had a funny scene where she "accidentally" swallowed some "Mexican water", causing her to have a tummy problem. Been there, had that happened.
  

• My favorite scene in the movie involved 3 of the main characters and Mr. Big fighting it out in front of the New York Public Library. I LOVED Kristin Davis's acting in that. Normally, she depicts the bubbly always smiling Charlotte, but in that scene, she showed an intense side of the character.

• There are SEVERAL nude scenes - 3 out of the 4 main actresses have some sort of full frontal nudity scene. And there's a certain eye candy for those who have a taste for the male anatomy. Though, I'm not sure if these scenes will be screened in certain "conservative" countries.

• Jennifer Hudson makes an appearance in the movie as Carrie's assistant. However, her acting in this one wasn't as good as the character didn't really have much to go with. She did provide a song in the soundtrack.

Some of the my favorite lines from the movie:

Charlotte : [to Big] I curse the day you were born!

Samantha : The good ones screw you, the bad ones screw you, and the rest don't know how to screw you.

Jerry 'Smith'Jerrod : You seem distant.
Samantha : Distant? You're still in me.

Samantha : [meeting a naked Dante] I'm sorry. I'm your neighbor and my dog ran up on your dick... deck!

Samantha : [at seeing Miranda's unshaven body parts] Don't blame marriage. She's married and she's not growing a national forest.

Carrie : What makes you think something bad is gonna happen?
Charlotte : Because! Nobody gets everything they want! Look at you, look at Miranda. You're good people and you two both got shafted. I'm so happy and... something bad is going to happen.
Carrie : Sweetie, you shit your pants this year. I think you're done.

Samantha : You know me. I don't believe in marriage. Now, botox, on the other hand, works everytime.

Miranda : How often do you "color"? [compensating the word sex with color in front of Charlotte's daughter]
Carrie : I won't tell you how often, but when Big colors, he rarely stays in the lines.
Samantha : Color? Well, I can't color enough. I would color all day . . . everyday. If I had my way, I'd use every crayon in the box.

Let me just tell you people . . . we watched the movie on the first day it showed to the Argentine audience - and getting tickets to it was HELL. Good thing that RT is an expert at getting things and so we had tickets to go watch it on that Thursday night. Only thing is . . . aside from the Victoria's Secret store in NYC . . . this was the only other time I've been in an enclosed area where the female population outnumbered the male 12 to 1 (some over-exaggeration inserted here). And it didn't help that there were a few certain noisemakers (chicks with loud sounds ooogling and aaagling and aaahhinng to the movie). Annoying to say the least.

I got the soundtrack of the movie weeks in advanced. And I had listened to that album over and over and over and over . . . So, by the time I was watching the movie, I was singing along (under my breath and as quietly as possible). One of the songs in the movie was a remake of Don Henley's "Heart of The Matter" as done by India Arie, and I think this song embodies the movie.

The Heart Of The Matter

The official Trailers





My Overall Stargazing : 5 out of 5

Review on The Happening

One word to describe the movie:

BORING!

I got this off from Wikipedia, and I have to agree with the critics, except the last paragraph:

"The Happening has received mostly negative reviews from film critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 19% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 146 reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 35, based on 37 reviews. The film received an average score of 45.6% from 55 film critics, according to Movie Tab.

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter said the film lacked "cinematic intrigue and nail-biting tension" and that "the central menace ... does not pan out as any kind of Friday night entertainment. Variety 's Justin Chang thought the story "... covers territory already over-tilled by countless disaster epics and zombie movies, offering little in the way of suspense, visceral kicks or narrative vitality to warrant the retread." Mick LaSelle at San Francisco Chronicle felt the film was entertaining but not scary. He commented on Shyamalan's writing, saying "... instead of letting his idea breathe and develop and see where it might go, he jumps all over it and prematurely shapes it into a story." Time's Richard Corliss saw the film as "dispiriting indication that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has lost the touch" Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips thought the film had workable premise, but found the characters "gasbags or forgetful" Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal said the film was "woeful clunker of a paranoid thriller" and described it as "befuddling infelicities, insistent banalities, shambling pace and pervasive ineptitude".

Roger Ebert, of Chicago Sun-Times, was the leading critic to praise the film. Giving the movie 3 out of 4 stars, Ebert found it oddly touching and commented that "It is no doubt too thoughtful for the summer action season, but I appreciate the quietly realistic way Shyamalan finds to tell a story about the possible death of man." New York Times's Manohla Dargis praised Mark Wahlberg's lead performance and said " [the film] turns out to be a divertingly goofy thriller with an animistic bent, moments of shivery and twitchy suspense". Philipa Hawker of The Age gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars, commenting on "the mood of the film: a tantalising, sometimes frustrating parable about the menaces that human beings might face from unexpected quarters" and highlighted "sinister recurring moments is the sound of the breeze and the sight of it ruffling the trees or blowing across the grass - an image of tension that calls to mind Antonioni's Blowup.^"

I don't know. . . I think M. Night Shyamalan has lost his touch. More like a waste of time, this movie was.

Remember that M. Night Shyamalan normally makes a cameo appearance in ALL his movies? I was looking forward to seeing that in this movie, but he never appeared. Maybe his scenes will be in the DVD.

One trivia about the movie is that it's co-financed by an Indian based company and will be distributing it in India while Fox will distribute it to the rest of the territories.

I was so greatly disappointed by the movie. The trailers seemed so much better.

My Overall Stargazing: 2 out of 5