Cast: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon
Director: Michael Patrick King
There are many ways to torture a straight man, but forcing him to watch Sex & The City 2 is possibly the most cruel. To be fair, even female fans of the popular TV series are likely to cringe at the embarrassing antics of its four leading ladies who, beneath all that greedy consumerism and love for expensive shoes, once represented 'real' urban American women. These were fiercely loyal friends who stuck by each other through difficult phases like break-ups, bankruptcy and Botox.
Now, two years after their last outing on the big-screen, they come off as unfunny, insensitive, middle-aged versions of their earlier selves.
Pressing the pause button on their marriages, their babies, and their careers, Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte take off for an all-expenses paid holiday to Abu Dhabi on the invitation of a billionaire Sheikh who hopes to impress Samantha into doing PR for his fancy hotel. Like giggling schoolgirls, the ladies lap up all the hospitality - private booths on a chartered plane, the best suite in the Sheikh's hotel, a private car and butler for each guest, and designer wardrobe for a day in the desert - yet don't think twice before offending Arabs by mocking their religious customs and challenging their conservative beliefs. ((pause)) They're practically kicked out of the Middle East when Samantha (played by Kim Catrall) gets 'too friendly' with a lover on the beach, then more-or-less flashes a market full of Arab men and brandishes condoms in their faces.
Sex & The City 2 is missing much of the wit that made the original series so much fun. You knew you could always count on Carrie or Samantha to come up with a clever line, when Charlotte decided to complain about her husband's weird Jewish traditions, or when Miranda sat down to sulk about not getting enough sex. The humor, unfortunately, appears to have dried up now as the ladies inch towards half-century.
The smartest line in the film is delivered by Carrie (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) when she sees the new blonde, permanently bra-less nanny hired by Charlotte to tend to her daughters. Someone mutters: "There ought to be a law against having a nanny like this." Carrie responds: "Yeah, the Jude Law."
In an earlier instance, Carrie and her husband of two years Big fail to get any sleep in their hotel room, sandwiched between a room in which Samantha is having noisy sex with a man she just met, and a room in which Charlotte's baby is crying loudly. "I don't know which is worse," Big shrugs. To which Carrie replies, "Samantha. The baby will tire eventually."
Jokes like these are few and far between, replaced instead by inappropriate, embarrassing close-ups of crotches, erections and bouncing breasts. To be honest, the sexual references aren't so offensive as the incredibly fake-sounding 'serious' relationship banter between the characters. When Big suggests they spend two days a week apart from each other, Carrie asks him: "Is it because I'm a bitch wife who's constantly nagging you?" Big sidesteps the question, but I know I wanted to scream, "Yes, yes, yes."
This film's target audience - fashion-obsessed women - might get their money's worth from simply spotting all the labels on screen, but for anyone who expects more from a film, this is a punishment, nothing less.
I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for Sex & The City 2. It's offensive on so many levels, and reinforces every cliché you can think of. It's also two-and-half hours long. I can think of so many better ways to spend my time!
Rating: 1.5 / 5
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