Wednesday, May 26, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW: Sex and the City 2


Partying like Carrie

On Tuesday night, I went to a special advance screening of "Sex and the City 2" at the Birmingham Palladium. I won the tickets as part of a contest promotion on MomsLikeMe.com. I was totally looking forward to this exclusive evening of being pampered by the students at Douglas J. Aveda Institute in Royal Oak and then seeing the newest movie in the "Sex and the City" franchise.


Me with @LauraMotorCity
As we arrived, all the moms took professional photos in front of a MomsLikeMe backdrop -very VIP chic. The Douglas J. Aveda Institute in Royal Oak provided all the moms with chair massages along with hair and makeup touch-ups. The Douglas J. students did a great job and everyone looked fabulous. MomsLikeMe even provided us with all the popcorn and soft drinks we could hold. We all felt like VIP's as we settled into our seats for the movie.


Lost in Abu Dhabi

Sex and the City 2 starts two years after the end of the first movie. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) are married, but Big is more interested in watching TV than living the New York high life with Carrie. Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is at the top of her professional game, but in need of lots of "vitamins" to keep the symptoms of menopause at bay. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is now a mom of two less than perfect children who are driving her crazy and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) hates her job at the law firm where she has worked like a dog to make partner. So the girls all go on the ultimate road trip - a one week all expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi. I had high expectations of a great film. But something strange happened on the way to the Middle East.

The sparkle that these characters once had didn't show up much and the whole movie seemed forced from beginning to end. As I sat there wondering what was missing, I realized that the characters were swallowed up by a storyline that went for fun over substance. The events were all so over-the-top that the characters were not allowed any space to develop. Even the clothes got lost in the backdrop of Abu Dhabi. Every so often I would see glimpses of the sparkle, like when Miranda got Charlotte drunk so she could admit that motherhood ain't all roses or when the girls karaoke to the girl power song of all time or when Samantha finally had it out with the uptight men of Abu Dhabi, but those moments were far too few.

After two and a half hours, I left the theater thinking this movie just did not do the characters or the clothes justice. It was a cute movie, but I was so hoping for more. It's a shame really. But I guess when you leave " New York City" out of "Sex and the City", something is bound to be a little off.

"Sex and the City 2" opens Thursday, May 27th at the crack of midnight.

4 comments:

  1. I totally agree. I liked the movie a lot. I thought it was very cute, but I thought the first one was better. I'm not sure if I had really high expectations or if it was over-hyped.

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  2. I saw the movie tonight and your review is spot on! I actually wrote the exact same comment in my facebook status about the characters not really developed in the second movie.

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  3. I was glad I went to see it, but like you I was disappointed in the character development. It was difficult to watch the over-the-top excess with all that's going on in the world these days. I kept thinking that some of the wealth, actually alot of the wealth of Abu Dhabi should be used to clean up the oceans!

    Thanks for checking out my review and commenting!
    http://kellysluckyyou.blogspot.com/2010/05/movie-review-sex-and-city-2.html

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  4. I saw the first movie on opening night, but haven't been as compelled to get to the theater for #2. During the show, they always spoke about NYC being the 5th character... but sounds like she got left out of this one! Might just wait for the DVD to come out!

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