Thursday, May 27, 2010
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Thursday, May 27, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Sex And The City 2
Has Anyone Seen A New Movie
Lately?
Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon in "Sex
And The City 2", directed
by Michael Patrick King. Warner Brothers
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Heavens above. Those four Manhattan materialists are back, in a second
"Sex And The City", again written, produced and directed by Michael Patrick
King. This time the ladies are on an adventure in Abu Dhabi after accepting a
movie financier's offer of an all-expenses paid, all-chaperoned-all-the-time
stay. Twenty-four months of marriage will be
tested. Babysitters will never be interpreted the same way. Phallic
wonderment for man-eating marauders will be back on display.
However you view the premise of Mr. King's latest, one thing's obvious: "Sex And The City 2" worships at the altar of material
self-lathering, excess and indulgence par excellence. That's the film's
m.o. Its vacuous ways supersede its grotesquely racist and homophobic tenor.
Littered with nasty stereotypes of Middle Easterners, women and gays, this
"comedy" film transforms into one horror-filled, pathetic fantasy sketch after
another.
The screenplay, full of caricatured dialogue, doesn't advertise itself as a
satire, yet surely is one. (Isn't it?) The quartet of upper-middle class
New York women with disposable income complain once again
about their trivial, inane dramas. The film, and the characters played by
Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and
Kim
Cattrall condescend and patronize incessantly.
The experience is more
disheartening to watch when you consider that "Sex And The City 2" drones on for
a mini-David Lean-epic two hours and 24 minutes. Either the film's length serves to
underline its own inflated self-importance, or the great, avant-garde costume
designing legend Patricia Field demanded that a full, unexpurgated inventory
of costume changes be displayed in the film, which shows off its red carpet
parade of fashion hits and misses, not to mention its proud product placement.
The arguments between the film's married people are magnified
unnecessarily. The spats are almost exclusively about material things or objectification. In my naïveté I'll say that I don't think rich
people truly live or behave like this. Some rich peoples'
lives may be empty, but I'll bet they're a lot more complex than the lives of the
opulent and splendiferous label maidens at the heart of "Sex And The City 2", a
film infinitely worse than its 2008 predecessor.
(To boot, the film confirms the already-known fact that ladies generally talk more
bawdily and graphically about sex and genitalia than men could ever dream of
doing.)
Warner Brothers
Mr. King's film mines every cliché, fear and sexist joke for
laughs. It references a classic film of yesteryear,
a film whose amusing, clever interplay between the sexes still holds up
decades later, and far better than this film full of juvenile, women-hating,
mother-loathing banter ever could. As a film, "Sex And The City 2" is
as desperate to get laid as a "backed-up" sailor. It wallows, drunk in
its own glitterati and colorful visions. But all that glitters isn't gold.
The sad thing is, I laughed at a lot of this nonsense. Sadder still is that as I did, I knew it wasn't right. I wondered: why on earth am I
laughing at this? (Much of my laughter ceased in the first
hour.)
Of all the players Carrie (Ms. Parker) is the smartest and most
appealing. Yet the film needlessly dolls her up to dumb her down with
oversized hats and mundane, idle interactions. Carrie's seriousness and
self-awareness is drowned out in a sea of fools and cosmetic folly. (A lady in the audience could be heard
repeatedly saying of Carrie: "That's a spray tan!" And me, a straight man,
said to himself: why is Carrie always walking around her lavish apartment
in high heels?)
The worst parts of the film take place in Abu Dhabi (filmed in Morocco), where
like many Hollywood films about four American or western women basking in far
away "exotic" lands, the natives are mainly props or background filler.
When the
natives are front and center they are insulted and ridiculed by this
self-absorbed quartet of mostly obnoxious and empty-headed tourists. One or two especially offensive scenes
include a shameless "I see you" moment amounting to a materialism colonization.
Unscripted review: "Sex And The City 2"
Just as hideous and offensive is the film's pretentious, mocking salute to women's
empowerment, which feels like a man's disingenuous or paternalistic attempt at
endorsing or foolishly thinking he can somehow "validate" feminism. Having said
this, Gloria Steinem won't likely throw up if she sees "Sex And The
City 2". I imagine she'll laugh with, and at, its silliness and
superficiality, as will many women, who will be too busy to care and will enjoy this
elongated caper immensely.
I suspect the film's core fan base includes some straight men who will
love this toxic fluff but may not dare admit it. They will have a grand old time
over the Memorial Day
holiday weekend at the local movie theater, completely forgetting the smart,
sharp writing of the television series that spawned two epic films.
Television is of course a writer's medium, and it was the writing that made
HBO's "Sex And The City" series so good and watchable. Mr. King wrote
numerous episodes in that
series created by Darren Star, so what happened here? There's so much good talent (with some
cameos) on that big old screen, but sadly, nobody's home in the
editing room or creative division.
With: Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Mario Cantone, Willie Garson,
Raza Jaffrey, Jason Lewis, Max Ryan, Alice Eve, Kelli O'Hara, Manuel Herrera,
Michael T. Weiss, Megan Boone, Raya Meddine, Goldy Notay, Anoush NeVart.
"Sex And The City 2" is rated R by the Motion Picture
Association Of America for some strong sexual content and language. The film's duration is
two hours and 24 minutes. The film opened in some places on Wednesday
evening and at midnight this morning across
the U.S. and Canada in special screenings.
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