This film is everything I thought the first SEX AND THE CITY movie was going to be, but wasn't. The crass worship of excessive consumerism. I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the original film. That film turned out to be more than its sitcom roots. This one is a bad sitcom let loose with an enormous budget, gorging itself on every self indulgent wish possible.
Now Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker, L.A. STORY) is married to Mr. Big (Chris North, TV's LAW & ORDER), who just wants to silently watch old movies at night. She on the other hand wants to talk, but what does she have to talk about? Nothing remotely interesting comes out of her mouth the entire film. And she's a successful writer?
Charlotte (Kristin Davis, TV’s MELROSE PLACE) is having a tough time dealing with her two kids. She does not have to work and has a full time nanny (whose entire purpose in the film is to be a running tit joke). So when she runs off in horror to hide from her kids after they mess up a vintage skirt while they are baking, the audience instantly connects with each other in their hatred for her. Her tacked on shout out to mothers who actually have to do it on their own later in the film is far little and far too late.
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon, AMADEUS) is still a big lawyer who isn’t given any respect by her chauvinist boss. This is presented in an early scene and forgotten two seconds later. She really serves as someone to listen to the other characters and espouse needed plot information. Samantha (Kim Cattrall, MANNEQUIN) is a wanton slut. She can't resist any bad sexual pun there is. She actually utters the line Lawrence of My Labia.
The film begins with a ridiculous gay wedding where Liza Minnelli performs. Really? Outside of being a gay cliché, what do these guys do to get Minnelli? Then we move to the foursome whining about their lives, which happen to be nearly perfect by any standard. Any tension created is from lame sitcom devices that any mature adult could solve in two seconds.
To forget about their troubles, Samantha hooks them up with an all expense paid trip to Abu Dhabi in the UAE. This section is about as fun as being dragged onto a shopping trip to a store that makes you want to gouge out your eyes. Because that's all it is — shopping and eating and clubbing and hooking up. No length of consumption is too small. The characters and the film are drunk on the opulence. Even those whom might find pleasure in this clothing porn will find the over-the-top styles to be tacky at best. Oh and if things couldn't get worse they kick you when you're down with a painful karaoke sequence.
The sequence is cringe inducing because these women are supposed to be representative of Americans. They stare at women with headscarves like they're the redneck hunters from BORAT, who are very Samantha-like I hear. Samantha's promiscuous behavior of course turns heads. But it would turn heads in Vegas. At one moment she has an encounter with a group of Arab men where she gyrates and screams that she has sex. Keep it classy.
This is an Adam Sandler film for women. It's WATERBOY with buying shoes instead of football. The humor is obvious sex pokes. The story is a pointless clothesline for stupid gags and frivolities. Even fans of the show couldn't defend this junk. Please try though. Oh it's empowering to be able to say crude things like men. When men say crude things, they're ignoramuses. So the feminist movement has given women the equality to be dumb-asses too? The film is like swallowing a diamond. The jewel is all shiny and expensive, but it hurts like hell going down and arriving at its end where it covered in crap.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
