Discuss: Watching 'Sex and the City' Cold
Filed under: Box Office, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
In a little while I'll set off for the theater to watch Sex and the City. I've never seen more than a minute of the HBO show, and everything that I've heard about it has seemed vaguely repulsive. I don't know who the characters are, what they're known for doing or not doing, what story arcs fans are expecting to pop up or get resolved, or what's supposed to surprise me. In short: I am not part of Sex and the City's target audience. Were it not for an obligation to keep up with major cinematic developments, I'd probably skip the film. But as it stands, and though I'm committed to sitting through it, I can't help but wonder: is there any point in my watching it?This won't the first time I've watched a movie based on a show without ever having seen the source material. Mission: Impossible, Charlie's Angels, Miami Vice, Starsky & Hutch -- I went into all of them cold, but none were made specifically for fans of the program and meant to be a continuation of same. The closest I've come to watching a movie like that without having seen the show is, I think, Joss Whedon's Serenity. I liked it well enough, though I'm sure I was nonplussed by things that would have delighted a fan of Firefly.
So while I'm mostly dreading the movie itself, I'm sort of looking forward to the experiment. And I'm curious: has anyone ever had a positive experience with something like this? Is anyone else planning to do it with Sex and the City in particular? I ask in part because I question the film's box-office potential: the fans will come out, of course, but I can't think of a recent major release with less appeal outside the fan base.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-27-2008 @ 11:40PM
Kelsey said...
I went into "Serenity" with no knowledge of the TV show. (I only figured out Jayne's name through the internet.) I fell in love with the movie and quickly devoured the TV series which in my opinion is far superior to the film. That being said, the movie was made more for non fans, since they were the far largerer demograhic. "Sex and the City" has a large enough fan base that the movie will probably be more geared torwards them.
I think it is an interesting experiment on Cinematical's part. A reviewer with no knowledge of the characters may be able to focus more on the mechanics of the filmmaking (acting, plot, script, explaining character relationships, etc.). But I hope that Cinematical runs a review from a fan (or at least someone who has more knowledge of the show) as you do seem a biased torwards panning the film.
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5-27-2008 @ 11:48PM
Eugene Novikov said...
I also won't get to review it here, so it's not an experiment on Cinematical's part, just mine.
That said, I saw it, and despite my inability to ooh and aah over designer wedding dresses and huge closets, I found it painless.
5-28-2008 @ 8:58AM
Richard von Busack said...
I actually took a pass on SOTC, on the grounds that I thought it would be impossible to figure out what was supposed to be happening.
Serenity is much more dense when you know about the characters' back stories, and yet I got it (and loved it) right away: Space cowboys harassed by space railroaders and space Apaches. A pretty easy take...
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5-28-2008 @ 11:54AM
kevjohn said...
The main thing you need to know avout SATC is that it's about 4 shallow broads with enormous collections of impossibly expensive clothes, shoes, and accessories. They are all somehow wealthy, yet have plenty of free time to sit around drinking fancified martinis and gossip about the latest men in their lives and their varying degrees of unfulfillment.
I'll go into a movie cold, but not this one! I mean it isn't that unusual even to see a movie with no prior knowledge of the source material. I've seen all the Harry Potter movies without having read any of the books for instance.
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5-28-2008 @ 12:50PM
Justin said...
Harry Potter is a terrible analogy. You're not required to know the books because the books ARE the movie. There is no missing backstory or character development. It all happens onscreen.
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5-28-2008 @ 1:58PM
RC said...
I LOVED Speed Racer and I've never seen one episode of the cartoon. The critics were way too hard on this movie. It was visually and emotionally breathtaking.
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5-28-2008 @ 4:44PM
Ryan Beesley said...
Thank Eugene, you could have mentioned the spoiler before... ;-)
KevJohn, I respectfully disagree. It's an ugly duckling story in reverse. It's about 3 shallow broads and their friend Charlotte. Sarah Jessica Parker may try to say that it is about her character writing an advice column, and basing that column on the experiences of her friends in their microcosom examination of "The City." I on the other hand watched the show for Kristin Davis. I wasn't the only one, was I?
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