STUDIO: Warner Brothers
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2008
STARRING: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Hudson, Candice Bergen, and Chris Noth
WRITTEN BY: Michael Patrick King
DIRECTED BY: Michael Patrick King
FEATURES: Commentary By Director Michael Patrick King
A Conversation With Sarah Jessica Parker And Michael Patrick King
The Fabulous Fashion Of Sex And The City
Fergie In The Studio
Additional Scenes
2 Interactive Features: Sex And The City: The City and Dish It!

A longer version of Sex and the City? It sounds more like a threat than an offer. My borderline loathing of the movie version of Sex and the City has been well-documented, but the Blu-Ray version of the hit film only clarifies what really failed about the oversized version of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda. It's become impossible to see yourself in this group of melodramatic, self-important, egotistical women. Their obsession with petty things like shoe collections and who has a bigger wedding feels more insulting than ever in light of the current state of the economy. Seriously, who can watch the montages of expensive outfits in Sex and the City and not think that this is all a little shallow as the stock market crashes around us? And, you may be surprised to hear this, I was a HUGE fan of the show when it was on HBO. Back then, Carrie and the girls felt more like people you knew or people you wanted to be. Stretched out to cinematic proportions, everything that worked about the series falls apart in the movie version. I know, I know. It was a huge hit and there are plenty of people out there who will tell you they liked it, but I stand by this statement forever - it could have and should have been much better. At its peak, Sex and the City was one of the best written shows on television. Michael Patrick King's screenplay for the movie version is one of my least favorite of the year. That's all you need to say.

What's truly shocking about the Blu-Ray release of Sex and the City is that the biggest flaw with the theatrical version - and I've even heard this from friends who liked the movie - was that it was too long. How do you take a 30 minute show and stretch it out to 142 minutes? Well, Warner Brothers goes a step further with the Blu-Ray release, extending the film even further to a whopping 151 minutes. But none of it is really an enhancement. It's not like there were any characters, scenes of significance, or, you know, laughs cut out of the original. It's mostly just extensions of montages. Want to see Carrie trying on ten outfits instead of eight? It's your lucky day. 151 minutes of SATC is simply amazing to me. It's nearly as long as There Will Be Blood. When do you think they'll release the "Shortened Version"? I could cut sixty minutes out of this thing in the blink of an eye.

As for the movie itself, Sex and the City picks up where we last left the cosmo-swilling stars of the HBO series - Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) has finally been united with her series-long on-again-off-again true love John J. Preston (Chris Noth), aka Mr. Big, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has gotten back together with Steve (David Eigenberg) and is juggling a career with being a full-time mother, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is happily married to Harry (Evan Handler), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) may finally be settling down with the hunky actor Smith (Jason Lewis). SATC opens promisingly enough, kick starting each of these plotlines as Carrie decides to move in with and marry Big and Miranda leaves Steve after he cheats. But it quickly gets overcrowded to the extreme. Imagine the seventh season of Sex and the City that never happened crammed into a movie. Every character needs what would have been a multi-episode arc started, developed, and closed in one movie. Writer/Director Michael Patrick King does too little by trying to do too much and misses the show's strengths - the charms of its leads and the relatable quality of their predicaments. Audiences get a wedding, a pregnancy, a break-up, infidelity, and much more, all in one movie, but none of it strikes an emotional or humorous chord like it should. It all feels more like crass commercialism and desperation than it ever did on TV.

Of course, Sex and the City is about beautiful people wearing bright, shiny outfits, so the way to see it is on Blu-Ray. The high definition picture provided by Warner Brothers makes the colors of Carrie Bradshaw's world pop like a music video (which is the aesthetic King is mistakenly going for.) Sex and the City also features a hip, pop soundtrack, all of which sounds great on the Blu-Ray disc. The most interesting part of the SATC Blu-Ray release is the Conversation with Parker and King that sometimes crackles with a wit missing from the movie. These two TV icons reminisce about the show and have an easy-going rapport that they probably wouldn't with a standard talking-head interview. The commentary is a little dry. The interview is better. There's a fashion featurette that runs about twenty minutes and a clip of Fergie in the studio for about two minutes. Why anyone needs to see Fergie in a studio for two minutes is beyond me. There are two Blu-Ray exclusive special features, but neither are a real draw. If you're going to get SATC on Blu-Ray, do so for the video and audio. Hopefully, the sequel will be better. It's got to be, right?