No drive in 'Sex'-y imitation


This film version, arriving four summers after the cable channel stopped original shows, plays closer to the sanitized syndicated episodes, only with a couple of 'F'-bombs and some soft-core canoodling thrown in as a very lame 'R'-rated bridge to the edgy TV that is no more. The familiar themes remain as four close girlfriends from New York City continue to chase what intrusive narrator and published author Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) calls 'the two L's.' Those would be love, mostly with the same guys from the small screen, and labels, as in high-priced fashion.

One of the film's few clever moments has to do with the latter as Carrie with pals Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) egging her on puts on a retro style show while cleaning out her apartment.

Beware, however, that Carrie/Sarah's taste is not always so grand. In fact, there's a touch of unintended irony, I'm sure, when she parades like a ghastly gun moll while accompanying Miranda shopping for a Halloween costume.

The flimsy plot, which mostly involves Carrie's naturally on-again, off-again nuptials to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), tries to give each woman an equal something to do. Regardless, it all plays more like a silly and almost unbearably long romantic comedy than an Emmy-winning classic.

'City' newcomers include badly miscast Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson ('Dreamgirls'), as Carrie's sassy personal assistant, and a couple of tykes who must be related to someone. Why else would such clumsy additions be cast?