Unfiltered thoughts from a dude on “Sex and the City 2” – Archive
Written by Crow's Nest Staff, Oct 19, 2010, 0 Comments
Andrew Silverstein
Entertainment Editor
Somehow, on my own accord, in some weird line of thought… no, enough excuses. I watched “Sex and the City 2.”
Wow, that felt good.
Released back in May, “Sex and the City 2” is now slated for DVD and Blu-Ray release on Oct. 26. Apparently this little number’s got a few bonus features you missed in theatres including “Back in the ’80s” which reflects on the four girls day-glo’d out time together in late 80’s Manhattan, and a behind-the-scenes feature with Alicia Keys—whose song with Jay Z, “Empire State of Mind,” served as the movie’s opening theme.
“Sex and the City 2” is not bad—definitely not good, but not bad either. I expected some chick flick about a vapid foursome of rich, white women getting tipsy and prattling on in Abu Dhabi.
What I got was some chick flick about an interesting, at least bearable, foursome of rich, white women getting tipsy and prattling on in Abu Dhabi.
From the dude perspective, it’s a lot of woman to handle, almost two and a half hours worth, in fact.
We start with our book-writing protégé Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker)—or Carrie Preston now—as she’s married to some big guy nicknamed Big. I guess they got married in the first one or something. I’m a guy. Just watching this movie is devastatingly reputation-crushing enough, so you can Google that if you really want to know.
So Carrie’s married, and so is Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and so is Charlotte (Kristin Davis). Samantha (Kim Cattrall), the crazy blonde one who likes to have sex, is the only single one, but is slowly succumbing to the dreaded pitfalls of menopause at the age of 52.
They go to a wedding between two of their gay friends, Stanford and Anthony, and nothing happens except for a couple forced, awkward moments to show how unique and quirky Carrie is, while Liza Minelli sings “Single Ladies” and the crazy one who likes to have sex.
Then we get our first scene between Carrie and Big exclusively, and this kind of won me over. In fact, every scene between them was quite real and believable. Marriages are tough, they muse. Carrie wants to maintain the social butterfly status she cherishes so much now that she’s tied down, and Big wants to get takeout and watch TV every night.
It’s seemingly trivial, but indicative, I think, of that schism between male and female expectations in a marriage. The dialogue between them is always smart, charming and human. Carrie gets Big a vintage Rolex for their anniversary. Big gets Carrie a flat screen TV for their bedroom after remembering one nice time they had watching “It Happened One Night” in their hotel at the wedding.
“Did I f— up?” Big asks at Carrie’s obvious dismay. She nods. It just felt real—whatever that means—which was nice because nearly the entire next two-thirds of this movie are completely pointless.
Samantha, the wild one, gets an invitation to go to Abu Dhabi to do PR for some hotel that’s opening. In some twist of woman-logic, all her friends just have to go too, because we all bring our three best friends on important business trips.
They get there and—I’m not kidding—the plot just sits there like a fat blob for the next hour. They shop. And each have their own Maybach (that’s an approximately $350,000 car, by the way). And, and, and it’s just fabulous! And Carrie just happens to run into her most significant ex-boyfriend while shopping for shoes halfway across the world. So that’s a nice, little, completely obvious and forced plot twist.
I’ll stop barfing up the plot for you now. Pop in the DVD and relive the cinematic genius. Just know this movie is about one-third a real, honest and very makes-you-think examination of what it’s like to be married, and two-thirds moderately attractive, overdressed women, prattling crazy dialogue and whining about being middle-aged, rich, and on vacation in, arguably, the most luxurious vacation destination in the world—for free.
