Sex and the City 2 Review
By Rich Cline
Two years later, Carrie and Big (Parker and Noth) are settled into a rather dry married life, Samantha (Cattrall) is carrying on like a single girl, and Miranda and Charlotte (Nixon and Davis) are grappling with work and family, respectively. Their men are patient to a fault, even when attending the uber-gay wedding of Stanford and Anthony (Garson and Cantone). Then Samantha gets a freebie luxury holiday in Abu Dhabi and the girlfriends are off for madcap adventures involving camels, sand dunes, morality police and old boyfriends.
This is essentially a fantasy in which Western women flaunt their wealth and their well-preserved bodies in a Muslim country, changing costumes every few minutes while the local women are hidden behind burkas. Yes, there's a female-empowerment theme to each subplot, but the film never gets very deep into the issue, opting instead for farce and sass, plus fabulous outfits and more double entendre than you can shake a hookah at.
We also have snappy cameos from Liza Minnelli singing Single Ladies to Penelope Cruz cracking some decent jokes, plus superb actors like Art Malik and Omid Djalili, who presumably agreed to play Arabs for easy money. Meanwhile, the women muster up the chemistry that made the TV series such a success. And this extends to scenes with the men, even if most of them are barely on screen.
Although come to think of it, Davis and Nixon hardly register either.
The main problem is that after that flaming wedding, some dramatic scene-setting in Manhattan and the zany arrival in Arabia, the film stalls badly, churning through one corny set piece after another. After another. And another. It feels like it will never end, and yet there have been so many clumsy set-ups that we know what has to happen before they can all head back to New York and leave us alone for another two years. Maybe Big has a point: we need the break.

Facts and Figures
Year: 2010
Genre: Comedies
Run time: 146 mins
In Theaters: Thursday 27th May 2010
Box Office USA: $95.3M
Box Office Worldwide: $95.3M
Budget: $100M
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production compaines: Village Roadshow Pictures, New Line Cinema, Home Box Office (HBO), HBO Films
Reviews
Contactmusic.com: 3 / 5
Rotten Tomatoes: 15%
Fresh: 30 Rotten: 169
IMDB: 4.2 / 10
Cast & Crew
Director: Michael Patrick King
Producer: Michael Patrick King, John P Melfi, Sarah Jessica Parker, Darren Star
Screenwriter: Michael Patrick King
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, Kristin Davis as Charlotte York, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes, Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones, David Eigenberg as Steve Brady, Evan Handler as Harry Goldenblatt, Alexandra Fong as Lily York Goldenblatt, Parker Fong as Lily York Goldenblatt, Mario Cantone as Anthony Marantino, Willie Garson as Stanford Blatch, Noah Mills as Nicky, Liza Minnelli as Herself, Billy Stritch as Band Leader, Alice Eve as Erin, Jason Lewis as Jerry 'Smith' Jerrod, Max Ryan as Rikard Spirit, Lynn Cohen as Magda, Dhaffer L'Abidine as Mahmud (non crédité), John Corbett as Aidan Shaw, Raya Meddine as Annesha, Jennifer Ferrin as Patience
Also starring: Chris Noth, Darren Star