The excitement built in the theatre as the lights dimmed and the last bid for moviegoers to turn off their cell phones faded from the screen. After four years of waiting around and more than a few entertainment news reports on Kim Cattrall’s diva-like behavior, Sex and the City (the movie!) is finally a reality.

And it does not disappoint.

All the regulars are present: sex, love, shopping, shoes, Mr. Big and the four strongest friendships that premier cable television ever aired. What’s astonishing is how true the film stays to the original show. The beginning may actually stay too true.

The first hour of this 148-minute (that’s almost two and a half hours for you math whizzes) movie is like a trip in a time machine. After the first 30 minutes I expected a “to be continued” title to appear and credits to roll — is this just another episode? After the second 30 I was almost frustrated with the episodic mini-plots.

But it kept going. And then it was obvious. The film spends a lot of time and effort to make the film seamlessly flow as the series always had. The four-year gap is acknowledged: Carrie needs reading glasses now, Brady is older and Samantha has moved away. The characters and the style of the production are mirror images of the show though. Perhaps Michael Patrick King, writer and director of the show and the movie, meant to give us that familiar feeling of needing to beg for more.

Whatever King meant or didn’t mean, the film takes off in full feature-length style at the one-hour mark and is even more fabulous from there on out.

The whirlwind wedding shown in all the trailers is over and the City is back to being (mostly) single. Expect all the old drama to return in some form or another — from what outfit Carrie will choose to whether Stanford with ever find true love.

Sex throws a few curveballs as well, which will be appreciated by fans who are looking for something even better than the series. Infidelity, a series mainstay, is present, but not where you expect it. There is even a pants-pooping incident. Yes, folks, pants-pooping on HBO’s Sex and the City.

The only possibly disappointing change from the series is a decided lack of promiscuous sex. It doesn’t make the ladies’ love lives any less exciting, though, proving that monogamy can be sexy too. Carrie still won’t show any skin, but Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte and some guy named Dante all have their slightly pornographic moments.

Best of all is the range of emotion that Sex throws at the audience. The film really is a “romantic comedy.” The funny moments are hilarious, the sad ones are heart wrenching, happiness cannot be truly known until you’ve experienced it with the Carrie.

Whether you’re a die-hard, Manolo-Blahnik-wearing fan, the reluctant boyfriend of a die-hard, Manolo-Blahnik-wearing fan or just someone who loves a great film, put Sex and the City on your movie list this summer.