Sex, Lies and Merchandise
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
Post categories: reviews
Mark Kermode | 14:43 UK time, Thursday, 12 June 2008
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
Jump to more content from this blog
Outspoken, opinionated and never lost for words, Mark is the UK's leading film critic.
He co-presents Kermode & Mayo's Film Review on Radio 5 live, appears on the News Channel's Film 24 and is a presenter on The Culture Show.
This twice-weekly video blog is the place where he airs his personal views on the things that most fire him up about cinema - and invites you to give your own opinions.
For the latest updates across BBC blogs,
visit the Blogs homepage.
You can stay up to date with Mark Kermode's film blog via these feeds.
Mark Kermode's film blog Feed(RSS)
Mark Kermode's film blog Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
Download or subscribe to Mark's film podcast.
Mark reviews the latest UK film releases.
Visit The Culture Show site and see what's coming up.
An online showcase for British Film
BBC Radio 4 Film Interview Archive
These are some of the popular topics this blog covers.
BBC © 2014 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Comment number 1.
At 17:02 12th Jun 2008, brian t wrote:"A handbag where its heart should be?" I wonder if Maggie Thatcher's seen this..!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 17:16 12th Jun 2008, MorrisMitchener wrote:Thank you, thank you, thank you...
You've expressed my disgust for this tawdry franchise with precision. The automatic reaction from many has been to accuse critics of sexism, without supplying arguments to support this reprehensible bile. The female critic on Newsnight Review who panned it for the same reasons as myself, such as the hideous solipsism and consumerism, was obviously not doing so in a sexist way, and neither am I.
The bottom line is that the attempts at humour are cringe worthy in the extreme. They make me recoil every time I hear them. The sex/colouring 'joke' on the clip shown on the Culture Show is a perfect example of the drivel that appears.
"I'm 41 and I still don't know what it means". Ho and indeed hum.
It is tired, it is hackneyed, it is smug, and it is not funny.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 17:28 12th Jun 2008, titch_nesw wrote:Bravo, eloquently put and far better than I could have done... I was told the same thing as you were my a girl who watched the film I said roughly the same thing but with a few more obscenities included...
In my opinion people who watch this rubbish are no better than those who watch the parody films that have sprung up in abundance recently.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 18:34 12th Jun 2008, Takethree wrote:Mark - what you say is true and what is a mother to do? What sort of society are we are creating for our daughters - Lee wins the apprentice and Sex and the City is supposed to let us think we are liberated.
I would rather they watched Mary Poppins - even Disney had stronger role models (with a song, sung by a mother, about suffragettes.)
Keep on keeping on!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 19:21 12th Jun 2008, Julius_Strangepork wrote:Scarily, I can see "It's not a film about issues, it'a a film about shoes" being on the poster for the DVD release
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 22:18 12th Jun 2008, jontom460 wrote:From one 'bloke' to another - I HERE YOU, SISTER!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 22:59 12th Jun 2008, brass_marsh wrote:Yes Kermode, and you know what, my girlfriend agrees with you totally. You have joined the heroes list she made and stuck on the inside of one of my door cupboards-you sit amongst such luminaries as Bill Hicks, Wayne Shorter and Arsene Wenger. Aren't you lucky.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 00:02 13th Jun 2008, iamdrpig wrote:Thank you Mark. I applaud your bravery, your courage, and your commitment to your craft. You watch, and we laugh at your pain!
Imagine the love child of Rambo 4 and Sex and the City.
Imagine Big Brother.
Urgh!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 10:05 13th Jun 2008, EllenW-web_producer wrote:Couldn't agree more. I remember seeing a preview in a newspaper that proclaimed SATC as "The film all women are waiting for". That sort of sweeping statement makes me grind my teeth.
Just because I'm a 30-something woman doesn't mean that I only think about shoes and relationships. I do like buying shoes, but that takes up about 0.00002% of my brain.
I'm perfectly willing to believe that lots of people enjoyed this film, but lots of people enjoy Big Brother and I can't stomach that either.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 16:29 15th Jun 2008, Motherwell4 wrote:Hi all
As unfortunately I am a bit short for time I was wondering if the BBC are going do a written version of the latest film reviews. While Mark is no doubt a good resource and enjoying his video blogs it might be good for those of us in a rush to be able to quickly scan a few lines see if we like the sound of it then go to the cinema.
Both the videos and written formats would be good. I am no doubt going to be pointed to where this written format is but I will be jiggered (technical term) if I can find it.
Cheers
Ps sex and the city reason for celibacy?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 22:02 16th Jun 2008, one_minute_to_midknight wrote:Does anybody have the link to the Darabont Indy 4 script mentioned on Friday's show
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 15:34 17th Jun 2008, Donald wrote:I am astonished by the number of male critics who have written cowardly quasi-positive reviews of this vile tripe. "Oh it's not my sort of thing, but blah, blah, blah." Meanwhile, ironically, female critics such as Manhola Dargis in The New York Times have been happy to identify it as the bilge it is. Well done, Mark. If anybody else calls you a sexist tell them where shove it.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)
Comment number 13.
At 17:39 17th Jun 2008, Jayblue wrote:At last, someone who talks sense. Mark you are my hero!
I'm a woman, a real woman not a cardboard cutout who talks about shoes all the time. Neither do any of my female friends. It makes me despair to think that 100 years from now, people may view this film and believe that it was a real and fair representation of women.
Sadly, I bet that if the franchise had just been called 'In The City' it would not have been half as popular.
Consumerism is rampant and the world is suffering for it. The credit crunch is looming. Hollywood is no longer run by creative forces (was it ever?) but the advertising industry and corporate finance. No wonder they choose a time like now to put this movie out.
I absolutely LOATHED the TV series and I will not be wasting either my time or money on watching this at the cinema or on DVD. I would rather fry up my own gizzards for dinner.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 13)
Comment number 14.
At 18:26 27th Jun 2008, cgoddard wrote:Praise Gucci.
Thank Blanik a critic who tells it how it is. I'm a bloke, I loved the series (I'm not gay) but gave the film a wide berth as I just knew it was exploitation... Hoo ya Mark.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)
Comment number 15.
At 18:52 27th Jun 2008, jessboomin wrote:Yes Mark go on: I'm female and I also think this movie was not only dreadful schlock and just a bad, storyless, pointless movie, but true to the vacuous, consumerist, anorexia and faked-stupidity inducing drivel that characterised the series and probably the enwhy?see culture that spawned it. I am ashamed to say that I was induced by a misguided and desperate female friend to attend and therefore minutely bumped up those depressingly high box office figures - I take it back! Count my vote out!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)
Comment number 16.
At 01:15 23rd Mar 2009, I_am_I wrote:Mark, if you want any extra ammo against this piece of crap, just point out to your critics that the red-head in 'Sex and the City' is a lesbian in real-life who plays a heterosexual. If that doesn't sum up the show, I don't know what does: empty, transparent, vaccuous, shallow, false, fraudulent, flatulent, excremental, diabolical....
Complain about this comment (Comment number 16)