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Sex and the City 2: Sparkle, Carrie, Sparkle!
Marc Harshbarger on 05.25.10 at 5:40 PM |
Sex and the City 2 does "sparkle" from beginning to end, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having liked - but not loved - the somewhat heavy-handed first film of the popular HBO series, I was still curious to see the sequel, in which our favorite ladies vacation in Abu Dhabi and Carrie meets up with her old boyfriend, Aidan. However, SATC2 has a lot more wonderful things going on in it, so here are five reasons for you to go see the movie:
1) Fabulous Flashbacks: The first few minutes of the film has Carrie - in her familiar voiceover - taking us back to when she first arrived in New York City in 1986 and met her three best friends. We get to see how the characters looked over 20 years ago, which is a lot of fun - and I didn't know that Samantha was once a bartender. It's a great way to reintroduce us to these groovy gals.
2) Pro-Gay Marriage: The first half hour is all about the outrageously over-the-top wedding of Carrie's friend, Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson), and Charlotte's friend, Anthony Marantino (Mario Cantone). These two delightful drama queens used to dislike each other, but in the two years since the first film, they've obviously had a change of heart about their feelings.
3) Liza!: You gotta love Liza Minnelli at age 64 strutting her stuff to Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". I've read some recent criticism about her version of this song - which appears on the movie soundtrack - but in the context of the film, it works beautifully - and she's terrific. Besides providing the wedding reception entertainment - it is a BIG GAY affair - Liza also has another reason for being at the ceremony, which I will let you discover for yourself.
4) The Supporting Cast: I was never a big Mr. Big fan during the 1998-04 TV series - and I became even less enamored of him after he screwed up their first wedding attempt in the original movie. However, he redeems himself in the sequel - and as played by the handsome Chris Noth, I could relate to Big's desire to stay home, eat Chinese take-out and watch old black-and-white movies like 1934's It Happened One Night (which is used for an amusing scene later in the film).
I was a fan of furniture designer Aidan Shaw (played by the still sexy John Corbett), whom Carrie treated badly during the series because of her feelings for Big. Again, I'm not going to give away anything about Aidan's surprise reappearance in Carrie's life in SATC2, but I did enjoy seeing him again.
Both Charlotte's husband, Harry (Evan Handler), and Miranda's Steve (the adorable David Eigenberg), both show up again. I also enjoyed Jason Lewis as "Smith" Jerrod (who does remove his shirt); Max Ryan as a Danish businessman (who removes more than his shirt); Alice Eve as Charlotte's Irish nanny, Erin; Penélope Cruz (looking gorgeous in her cameo); and Michael T. Weiss as a guest at the gay wedding (he starred in the 1995 film, Jeffrey, and on TV's The Pretender - and he still looks hot).
5) Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis & Cynthia Nixon: The four lovely and talented actresses know their characters inside and out after playing them for 12 years. And although they are now in their mid-40s to early 50s and coping with marriage, children and menopause, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda can still be as wild and bawdy as ever. Cattrall's Samantha has most of the memorable one-liners, but I was very glad to see Nixon's Miranda get the chance to let her hair down and enjoy life in the sequel. Fortunately, the screenplay by director Michael Patrick King doesn't get as melodramatic as the first film - and the laughs rarely stop. However, if I had to select my favorite moment of the movie, I would choose a funny but emotionally honest scene between Charlotte and Miranda, who confess their true feelings about motherhood while sipping their cocktails in Abu Dhabi. These two women seemed like real friends who truly cared for each other - and that's what Sex and the City has always been about.
Although co-producer Parker allows her three co-stars to shine brightly, the film still centers around Carrie Bradshaw, who is having a difficult time adjusting to her husband's desire to watch old movies at home instead of going out on the town every night - as she once did as a single lady. Carrie still wants some "sparkle" in her life, which I can certainly understand. And I would highly recommend that she and her gal pals go see Sex and the City 2, which provides some enjoyable "sparkle" worth checking out.
My Grade: ARunning time: 146 minutes
Website: www.sexandthecitymovie.com
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