Sexteen Percent

First off, get a grip people. "Sex and the City 2" is not the worst movie ever made. It's not even the worst "Sex and the City" movie ever made. It seems many critics, both professional and non, have taken a dislike of the movie as an excuse to vomit bile all over the entire franchise, aging women, and the aging women who would dare to love the franchise. From the reviews I've read about how vain, vapid, and offensive the movie is, I was expecting to see the four friends arrive in Abu Dhabi, slap people in the face with their designer bags, and immediately expose their vaginas to the entire country. That doesn't happen. Nothing remotely like that happens. What the movie is, is a nice romp, expressly aimed at women, that is about as realistic as any of the black-and-white, high society-set, Depression-era movies Big loves to watch while curled up on his $10,000 couch. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Now, I am not an apologist. I really, really didn't like the first movie, but that was mainly because of the story it chose to tell, not because the characters are materialistic, self-centered, or unrealistic. If you're looking for realism from a show about a newspaper columnist who lives in a New York brownstone with a walk-in closet, you are looking in the wrong place. "Sex and the City" has always been fantasy; a modern-day fairytale filled with emotional truth. And it's straight up for women. I have deep respect for any guys who watched and liked the show, but I realize they are few and far between. And that's OK. They have an entire summer of movie choices filled with fantasies tailored for them. S0, if there are any critics out there left who have not seen the movie, and were not fans of the show, please, don't bother. The movie is not for you.

So yes, the crowd tonight was predominantly female, and many chose to dress up, (though not as many as I had thought would), and they all seemed to have a great time. I know I enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with three of my best girlfriends, and be pleasantly surprised by something we were all told was going to be a total disaster. The only disappointment: how the restaurants in the Westfield Mall didn't choose to stay open a little late, knowing they were going to have hoards of women coming out of the theater all night, in desperate want of a Cosmopolitan. There's a reason "Sex and the City" is set in New York: LATE NIGHT DINING.