Film / Sex and the City

"Two years of bad business and this bullshit economy and I am done. We need to go somewhere rich."

— Samantha in Sex and the City 2.

Two films based on the popular HBO series Sex and the City, starring the Four-Girl Ensemble of now fortysomething ladies, following their lives after the shows.

The reviews for the films range from mixed to extremely negative, with the second installment having attracted quite a bit of ire from both critics and the general audience.

The first Sex and the City film was released in 2008, and the second in 2010. Plans for a third film stalled due to Kim Cattrall's reluctance to return in the role, which eventually led to the creation of a sequel series, And Just Like That..., in 2021.

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These films provide examples of:

In General

• Costume Porn: Though by the time the second film was released, well into the recession, this particular aspect began to lose its charm. Viewers were particularly unimpressed when - as seen below - Charlotte chooses to bake cupcakes in a vintage Valentino skirt, and is then appalled when her elder daughter gets it dirty.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble
• Idiot Ball: In the second film, Charlotte chooses to wear a cream, Vintage Valentino skirt while baking cupcakes while her elder daughter finger paints nearby; two activities with a high potential of getting at least some mess on yourself, especially when you add two very young children into the mix. The result? Two red hand-prints on the aforementioned skirt, a screaming fit and Charlotte locking herself in a cupboard to cry.

First Film

• All Women Love Shoes: It's Carrie-freaking-Bradshaw after all. Big even buys her a humongous closet to accommodate her addiction.
• Awful Wedded Life: Miranda and Steve, with their lack of sex and his confessing to him cheating on her onetime with another woman. It drives an almost year-long wedge before they reconcile.
• Big Applesauce: More New York porn to go around.
• Bridezilla: Carrie during the wedding, especially when she freaks out due to Big's absence.
• The Casanova: Samantha's hunky neighbor Dante, who is Naked on Arrival (and in most of his other appearances, as well) and has an Extreme Libido.
• Costume Porn: All the designer dresses Carrie wears at the Vogue shoot.
• Happily Married: Charlotte and Harry, with the former being sensitive enough to stay quiet when her friends voice their issues with their male partners while she has sex four times a week with Harry (even thanking him for "being you" after the revelation of Steve cheating on Miranda).
• Idle Rich: It's implied that Dante does nothing but surf and make love.
• It's All About Me: Carrie, after Big gets cold feet at the wedding. Not that what happened to her wasn't humiliating and devastating, but it's treated as by far the worst thing any of the characters on the show has been through — in particular by Carrie herself, who at one point needs to be spoonfed by Samantha. This despite the other characters having gone through things like breast cancer (Samantha) and a miscarriage (Charlotte). Within the movie itself, it stands out the most in contrast to Miranda, whose husband of many years (who is also the father of her son) cheats on her and their marriage falls apart for several months. Somehow Carrie doesn't find that to be anywhere near as bad as what she herself is going through. In general, the characters don't give Miranda a fraction of the sympathy and support that they give to Carrie.
• Magical Negro: Jennifer Hudson plays Carrie's assistant who helps to inspire her after Big dumps her yet again.
• Meaningful Echo: Steve and Miranda's first sex scene is full and bland, with them still half-dressed and her even saying, "Let's just get it over with!" Their second, after they reconcile, is probably one of the most passionate and explicit in the show's history.
• My Own Private "I Do": Carrie and Big at the end in Court, with the rest of the girls showing up after the fact.
• New Year's Kiss: Stanford and Anthony, who had bad blood in the original series after Anthony snubbed Stanford as a date, end up at a New Year's party together. When the countdown ends and they notice each other, they each take a swig of champagne before kissing. They get married in the sequel film, implying that this kiss rekindled their romance.
• Really Gets Around: Every time Dante's shown making love, it's to a different woman, and it's implied that each is only days or hours apart.
• Runaway Bride: Carrie, after she learns that Big was ditching the wedding due to cold feet. Complete with Carrie wielding a bouquet as a weapon and her friends holding her back.
• Surprise Pregnancy: After a few years of accepting her fertility issues and being contented with her husband Harry and daughter Lily, Charlotte finds that she is pregnant.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Averted with the now 50-year-old Samantha, who attempts to lend Carrie (owner of an outdated flip phone) her smart phone, only for the younger woman to complain she doesn't know how to use it.
• Technology Marches On: Indirectly invoked by Carrie. She didn't have a cell phone for most of the show, and when she did, it was a comically outdated (and bedazzled) flip phone. When Samantha hands her a touchscreen to call Big, she immediately dismisses it and says she has no clue how to use it.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: Carrie's potential assistants before she lands on Louise, who is essentially Carrie's counterpart, and the reason she hires her.
• The Peeping Tom: How Samantha maintains her relationship with Smith Jared while still living vicariously through a man who sleeps with a lot of women.
• Time Skip: 4 years, to be exact.
• You Are Not Alone: Carrie running to Brooklyn to be with Miranda on New Years after her breakup with Steve.

Second Film

• Aesop Amnesia: In the series, Carrie and the girls complain that their married friends view them as a "threat" in their relationship and the unfairness of it. Come the second movie, Charlotte is fretting constantly about Harry cheating on her with the Nanny. To add insult to injury, the movie "fixes" this, not by saying that Harry wouldn't cheat on her, but by stating in a throwaway line that the Nanny is a lesbian. Problem solved!
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Erin, Charlotte's nanny who is a gorgeous blonde with perky C-cups who wears no bra, to the chagrin of Charlotte.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When Erin is playing with Lily and Rose out on the lawn while everyone is at Connecticut for the Stanford and Anthonys' wedding, her bouncing assets lend some stares from the nearby Harry, Big, and Steve. With a golf club turning up.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Erin is supposed to be Irish, but her accent is the standard Diddly Irish accent that nobody in real life actually uses. Apparently, an actual Irish actress was rejected for the role for not looking Irish enough.