SEX AND THE CITY 2

SEX AND THE CITY 2 (2010). Writer/director: Michael Patrick King.

While the first Sex and the City movie was pretty good, this disappointing sequel is more problematic. For one thing, at over two and half hours long it seems to go on forever. Second, there's no real plot to speak of, except that each of the women seem to be undergoing a kind of minor crisis. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is afraid her marriage with "Big" is going stale; Charlotte (Kristin Davis) has trouble dealing with the stress of motherhood; Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is under-valued by her male boss; and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is on a steady hormone diet to keep her body as youthful as possible. Then the movie throws in a long sequence in which the gals travel on a junket to the mid-eastern city of Abu Dhabi, and Sex and the City 2 almost turns into a travelogue or tourism short. However, there are some good scenes, including the ladies singing "I am Woman" during karaoke night at an Abu Dhabi night club, and the whole business with Samantha taking on the sexual oppressiveness and sexism of the middle east has some punch to it. Alas, with its gay wedding full of "fag" stereotypes -- and even Liza Minelli! -- the movie seems backward even as it's trying to be hip; in Sex and the City gay men are always depicted as swishy throw backs who exist solely to hold their girlfriends hands and do their hair! Sex in the City 2 is very well-acted by all, but it's only sporadically entertaining and often tedious.

Verdict: Maybe these gals should just retire.