Reviewed by Kate Rodger
Sex and the City 2 is here and babysitters across the nation have been pre-booked for weeks as the girls get together to watch the girls get together.
Allow me to be the first to agree that any excuse to get the girls together is a good one. I just wish I could use the same adjective to describe this elongated, thinly stretched and patchy sequel.
Here we leave the haloed designer shopping environs of New York City, as the girls head to the Middle East for some dubious and oftentimes culturally insensitive shenanigans involving camels, camel-toes, hormones, burkas, champagne and yep, shoe shopping.
There was something obscenely excessive about the girls this time around, and it wasn’t just the duration. The fun, the froth, the frivolity, the girlie chats, the guilty pleasure of knowing how much I adore the shoes, the clothes, the handbags, it was all exposed as so heinously vacuous when such a thin plot was stretched over such a long time. I was left feeling more than a little exposed myself, as I crept guiltily out of the cinema.
Here’s the thing. I can stare at a gorgeous pair of shoes for hours, and I am a Sex and the City fan. I grew up with the show, and I enjoyed the first big screen outing. I enjoyed it over the same two and half hour duration and I gave it a generous four stars. So why the long face now you ask? Have I moved on? Am I done with the girls?
I hope not.
It’s just that this time around the story is as slim and skeletal as Carrie herself, with much of the usual cracking dialogue feeling forced and laboured, the multiple costume-changes reeking of product placement and luxury beyond most of our means. The fun moments, and there are certainly a few, are spaced so sparsely they get lost in the desert, quite literally.
As a night out at the movies, when your feminine expectations desire only an evening spent with fabulous friends, a pre-movie tipple followed by a mild cinematic diversion, then don’t listen to me. Just strap on those Manolos, grab that Marc Jacobs tote, pay the babysitter in advance, and head for Sex and the City 2.
Two Stars.
Sex and the City 2
:: Director: Michael Patrick King
:: Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker , Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth
:: Running Time: 145 mins
:: Rating: M - Contains sex scenes and offensive language
:: Release Date: June 3, 2010
:: Links: Trailer
