Okay, so, it probably goes without saying that if you are a fan of the TV Series, Sex and the City , the movie is MOST DEFINITELY a chick flick! That alone, in the eyes of many critics, knocks it down a peg or two in the subjective realm of movie review ratings.

But Sex and the City, the movie, did me proud. I've watched many a successful TV series make the transition to the Big Screen with less than lustrous results. What usually happens is that the movie becomes no more than a glorified extended play version of the the weekly one-hour episodes. X Files comes to mind.

If it's a sit-com or some optimistic platform making the leap, then you expect it to have the "hunky-dory" happy ending all neatly packaged with a designer bow on top.

There were several surprises. This movie, for one, managed to live up to it's name and  titillated R-rated audiences with more than a few gratuitous sex and nude scenes simply not permissible on a weekly episode, even if it's a major cable network, like HBO. All were tastefully done and worked well with the story line.

The second surprise -- the fabric of this movie was woven together like many of the high end garments. Labels and Love were the mantras touted at this NYC fest. It did a great job of neatly wrapping up the past of the series with the purposeful present of this feature film, but without coming off as the usual two-hour episode. It had high points and low points that added depth of character to the characters and gave the film a life of its own.

The final surprise was the ending... and no, I'm not going to give a single hint away, suffice to say that there was no neat perfect romantic comedy happy ending. It was messy and real there for a while. But of course you knew you couldn't watch a feature film based off such a beloved series without a happy ending.... but let's just say that some of the happy endings, although still happy, may not be quite what you would expect.

In the end: Does Samantha get "Smith" Jerrod? Is Miranda living happily ever after with Steve & Brady in Brooklyn? Is Charlotte York the glue that holds all of their friendships together? And the "Big" question: Do Carrie and Mr. Big finally tie the knot?

Buy a ticket. It was good. Even the guys might be pleasantly surprised.