day 2.285

sex and the city 2: don't get carried away.

oh sex and the city 2. what to say? really, what to say? i don't even know where to start. the follow up to the 2008 big screen series continuation was less than stellar. now, let me preface my review with the setting in which i saw the flick, because that might have had an effect on my complete experience. there were not one but two groups of women numbering over 10. one was seated next to me while the other group was two rows down and i suspect they were some sort of birthday group or bridal shower (and were too old to be doing either of those things at a movie theater). both groups appeared to have spent the day drinking because they were completely slap-happy the entire two and a half hour running time. there was also a row of men and women who broke out a plastic jug filled with what had to be franzia. they brought along plastic cups (not red solo ones, but the squatty clear ones you get on planes) and drank themselves into the night. these three crowds, coupled with the gaggle of girls who came in sets of four (natch they were all discussing whether they were carries, charlottes or mirandas. natch none of them would be samantha. or at least they wouldn't say it to their faces). and one very mismatched gay couple (standing together, they looked like the number 10) who laughed uproariously in my ear.

ok, so i've set the scene for you. now let me get to actually talking about the movie. like i said it was two and a half hours. that's an hour more than i like movies to be. however, i didn't check my watch. that's a good sign that i was entertained. and i was, but not consistently. i know the movie was made to be an escape - a chance for all of us to get away from the world's "troubles" and experience the, as samantha says, decadence. i get that and i fully embrace it. but, i don't know that the movie needed an escape. it is called sex and the city, not sex and abu dhabi. is there no way for these women to have a good time in the city? the first movie took the women to mexico, this one to the middle east. they did the show in new york for only 6 seasons on tv, meaning there has to be some story left untold there.

my other problem with the movie was that it didn't have a consistent tone. yes, there are such things as dramedies. but usually those have a specific type of humor laced in with the drama. satc2 went from slapstick, to sight gags, to puns and snark and back again. it was all over the place. the writing was far from the quality and it didn't seem like anyone cared to say "no one would ever say this" (the phrase "lawrence of my labia" was uttered. funny? yes. necessary? no). i think the women are so far removed from the series that they've forgotten who these characters are. they were basically caricatures of the people they used to be. everything was so overplayed. i think it may have been an attempt to cover up the fact that the movie really had no plot. it was as if 5 separate episodes of the tv show were written and then clumped together for a feature film. none of the story lines carried the movie (ha, pun). and the two major conflicts the film revolved around were resolved way too easily. there wasn't one major climax, but rather a bunch of mini ones.

i don't want to spoil anything for anyone interested in seeing the film, so i'll just sum it up from here. if you're a fan of the series, go ahead and see the movie. you'll enjoy it. but don't expect that chill down your spine the first film gave you. sex and the city 2 feels like a bridge - just a pathway and not a journey - to what is inevitably going to be sex and the city 3. hopefully carrie finds her way, again, by then.