Sex and the City 2

Anyone watching this in 2020 cause of quarantine just to see if its as cringey as you remember? No? Just me? Ok

After seeing the first Sex and the City movie, and finding it OKAY, I decided to take a stab at the second film. I am a huge fan of the HBO series, so i was naturally excited...

THE GOOD: Yes, there were some funny moments, and some nice things to look at (clothes, design, men). I liked most of the music choices, and I did enjoy the first 20 minutes or so of the film because it seemed as though it would be building up to something interesting, but just these few things alone could not have made a good enough movie for one of the best shows to ever air on television.

THE BAD: This movie had a lot of downfalls. Lets start with the plot (or lack there of). The audience was treated to four women that constantly complained about their "problems". I am not saying that their issues were not legitimate to regular women, but they did not present these issues in a way that would create an interesting plot..they were just seemingly simple problems that were over dramatized and annoying to listen to (lackluster marriage, boring job, declining hormones, having children...) In the middle of these "problems" we get to see how rich they are with their maids/nannys, change of expensive clothes every 4 minutes and fancy homes. All these things made it hard to sympathize with them. Yes, in the show we saw their lavish lifestyle, but this film was rubbing it in the audience's face, and it was a main part of the "storyline" when it really shouldn't have been. (plus, a lot of the clothing choices were NOT good)

It seemed as though they threw in the idea of going to Abu Dhabi just to make things interesting, but it just made things worse. I felt as though there was a mocking/ undermining quality to the way they portrayed middle eastern customs... But more importantly (to me) is the fact that when i think of the show and its title "Sex in the CITY" I think of that city as NYC, NOT Abu Dhabi (really, what were they thinking?)

Overall, i felt like this was a poorly executed film that had little resemblance to the show... I feel cheated.

My sister and I were so excited about going to this movie. With the recession, the loss of jobs and general pessimism of late - the thought of dressing up, drinking cocktails and watching a great movie in the company of a whole room full of women like us was excellent. We desperately wanted to love the movie.

Initially, everyone seemed to be in good form – a bit of a cheer when Mr. Big came on screen; gasps and giggles in response to the first few jokes….then uncomfortable silence. My sister squirmed in the seat beside me through the horrible 'I am woman' song. Having visited the Middle East myself (and enjoyed the cultural experience and friendly people; albeit with a different outlook on life) I was pretty appalled at the blatant lack of propriety exercised by the four.

I have to admit when the movie ended, all the women around me turned to each other and said it was 'great' – I don't think we were ready to admit that it was possibly the biggest disappointment ever. My sister and I had planned to talk about the outfits and scenarios after…we completely avoided the topic. We had all looked forward to this movie – we couldn't admit to ourselves (never mind anyone else) that it was awful.

To say I loved the original show is an understatement. As I enter my late twenties/early thirties, the reruns are even more relevant. The characters in the show discussed sexuality in a fresh, exciting way. They were women you could look up to – intelligent, confident, self-assured. They bear zero resemblance to the four self-indulgent, disrespectful, two dimensional creatures I had to watch.

I doubt any fan will take my advice and not go – I would have ignored it myself. The movie seems to symbolise everything that has gone wrong lately – by blindly pursuing materialism we lose what's really important. This movie spells that out – and leaves you feeling ashamed for having loved them so much in the first place. Having said that, I watched an episode in the series a night later and realised that, actually, I'm not an idiot – they used to discuss interesting, relevant issues – just in fabulous clothes.

As an aside, I spent an hour with my sister getting all dressed up to go, two hours chatting to her before we watched the horror show and four hours after dancing our socks off. Maybe the fact that was the best part means I have my priorities right after all.

WARNING: a few *small* spoilers.

The previous review says it all - but I still feel it necessary to add my two cents.

I, too, was a huge fan of the series...if only because the characters were interesting, and it was so refreshing to listen to realistic female characters discuss taboo topics such as sex.

I forced myself to watch the first movie. That was bad. This one...even worse. The characters have become utterly superficial, materialistic (in a way that's practically nauseating given the current state of the economy) - and completely 2 dimensional. The writing - cartoony and juvenile. Honestly, Carrie's the worst - the way the character acted in the film, I would personally have recommended that Mr. Big file for divorce. (Complaining because he wants to stay home and watch movies together, then forcing him to leave a party--that she dragged him to--early because he had a conversation with another woman?) Jeez.

As for Samantha - that character's gone completely over the top - sex crazed in a way that went way past racy and into plain vulgar.

Combine that with the incongruity of throwing the characters into a completely unrealistic situation (heading to Abu Dahbi?), and then disrespect that they show to Arab culture....well, this movie COULD NOT have been worse. Thank goodness that there's no way they'll make STC3. At least, I really, really hope not. How this ever could have been green lighted for production is totally beyond my comprehension.

This movie was unnecessary once again. I get it. These characters are fun characters and people like watching them interact but i just once again feel like there was nothing to be said once again.

The glaring issue is this movie is also too long. 2 and a half hours! That is 5 times the run time of a single episode of the original series. That is a big jump and i don't think it works especially when then story isn't there to support the long run time.

I actually found this movie slightly funnier than the previous but only by a slight margin. But i just couldn't get past the blah-ness.

Kim Cattrall is great as always but why she is also great is she's the only thing stopping them making a third movie, so good on her. They would keep making them because like i said people love these characters, i do too but i don't want to see them just like flounder around the screen not growing or developing. I said it in the last review that these characters have plateaued. They have reached their end and big surprise they ended once again where we started with them.

I do want to mention the start of this movie because it was the strangest thing id seen all week, Liza Minelli singing Single Ladies. That maybe even be enough to make the film watchable.