Never had I so excitedly anticipated a movie release as Sex and the City.  After six funny and heart-wrenching seasons I wanted more.  The girls were my friends too, their men my loves or lost loves.  So this was a real recipe for disaster.  How could this movie be anything but a disappointment?

Happily, I was wrong!  Some reviewers said it was too long.  No, for me it was not long enough.  From the moment the four friends walked down the streets of New York City to the last second of the movie I was captivated.

The movie, like the series, is a modern day fairy tale with the main characters playing multiple parts.  The four girls are, at times Cinderella, at other times the wicked stepsisters.  Some of the men are Prince Charming, but more often you will find them in the part of the Big Bad Wolf. 

The series left us with all four girls headed for “happily ever after.”  But the movie soon lets us know that only Charlotte and Harry can live the fairy tale.  The other three must deal with dragons of one kind or another.  And eventually Charlotte must deal with a little reality, ever so brief, uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Sarah Jessica Parker never disappoints me. As Carrie she completely lets the fairy tale die, on screen with no makeup.  There she is, just reality staring in the mirror at us.  What guts!  Then she allows the magic to slowly return.  I, for one, love her all the more!

Crematoriums and makers of receptacles for creamains everywhere were more than likely alarmed by scattering of Donny’s ashes in The Big Lebowski.  His two friends, the Dude (Jeff Bridges) and Walter (John Goodman), didn’t have the money for an urn, so they used a Folger’s coffee can.  But the preference for a Chock Full ‘o Nuts coffee can by Carter (Morgan Freeman), and the aversion to urns by the wealthy Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) must have greatly alarmed the industry.  Indeed, after watching the movie, I have a Trader Joe’s Chocolate Truffle can that would suit me perfectly.

This movie gives you a lot to contemplate.  What would you like to do before you “kick the bucket?”  Both the men find themselves in a hospital room together, and it’s not “friends at first sight.”  But they are both in the inevitable situation to seriously consider how to live the rest of their now limited life.  Edward Cole’s money allows them both to become active in checking off their “Bucket Lists.”  Carter’s amazing (and hard to believe) recall of facts enhances each experience.

Jack Nicholson, as always, plays Jack Nicholson.  And Morgan Freeman is the same unflappable character he portrayed in Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, and the movies where his character is the Almighty.  His quite insistence is more forceful than the opposition.  When he does get more demanding, he is not to be denied.

The character that seemed most convincing was Thomas (Sean Hayes).  He endured all the insults and put-downs from Edward Cole without those ever breaking his spirit.  His importance and endearment to Cole was always evident in his character’s heart.  In his scenes with Jack Nicholson he not only held his own, but often was the more memorable.

Bucket Lists become a priority to those more mature people who see this movie.  And coupled with Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, it becomes a way of life.