'Sex and the City' should have stayed a TV show

Or "How I wasted $11 and two hours and was only left with dashed expectations"

Saturday night a few girls got together to go see the Sex and the City movie. OK, I'll admit that we started out at my house with Cosmos, but only because my friend Cheryl wanted to try them. Fruity drinks generally make me dry heave, as we found out at Christmas this past year. I'm wondering if I can pass along the half bottle of Cosmo mix to one of my neighbors. I'll throw in the vodka if they will just take it off my hands.

So the movie: in short, it stunk and I think I know why. It's because the producers didn't have to make it good. To date myself, I'll just say that it seems to be all about the Benjamins. SATC should have stayed a TV show.

Now I will say that I had some specific reasons for seeing this movie. I wanted closure on the story lines. And I enjoyed the series immensely (bought the pink book of discs and watched all the shows from beginning to end). I considered the movie the last 4 shows. The movie wasn't even nearly as good as the TV program. Of course it was good to see the characters again. But the movie felt like a cheapened version of the show, almost suitable for Lifetime Television. And the acting.....don't even get me started. Overacting abounded and I'm sorry to say, Jennifer Hudson's acting was not good. The whole expression of the girl from St. Louis manifested in wide eyes and smiley perkiness was the opposite of subtle. Plus, I didn't really buy the relationship between Carrie and her assistant. It was unnecessary, like they were trying to stretch the movie. And when Carrie said that her assistant saved her? How? Bad script. And the "three buddies coming to save you!", "three buddies coming to surprise you", "three buddies blah blah blah" with exaggerated facial expressions, the kind you make at a baby to get a reaction. Too, too much. I guess someone told them their performances had to be bigger for the big screen.

Too many story lines with not enough development of them.

So when we left the theater, I told the gals that I was glad I saw it but it sucked. My theory is that the movie had a built-in audience. Every female (maybe even some males? I don't know) who watched the TV series was going to see this movie. So the producers didn't have to create a good movie in order to make money. Also, with all the fluff about "are they making a movie" Are they not?", I think they wanted to capitalize on the opportunity ASAP and for that, I think the movie came off as half-assed (sorry mom).

As the movie ended, people in the theater actually clapped. I wanted to stand up and say "What is wrong with you people? Don't you think you deserve better?" but then I thought that maybe they missed their "NY friends" so having a visit with them must have been satisfying on some level. For me, I just couldn't wait to get to the bar and get a couple of snakebites down.