There’s an unexplainable, almost uncomfortable feeling that takes over you as the lights dim and the sequel begins….something that feels like our four girls have landed in a novice high school play overly-costumed and reciting really bad lines. Over-the-top and forced is an understatement as the film opens in a far-fetched scene of Anthony (Mario Cantone) and Stanford (Willie Garson) as they wed to Reverend Liza Minelli. (and then we never see them again in the entire film.) That said, Stanford, Anthony and Big (Chris Noth) feel more at ease in their skin then Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Samantha (Kim Catrall) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). Its two years since the original movie, and now Carrie is a nagging housewife (or lack of one) who complains that “Big” won’t take her out dining and clubbing every night. Correct me if I’m wrong, but did it occur to her it’s time to grow up and perhaps even stay in and cook the love-of-her-life a meal? And that’s the problem with this movie….Charlotte still squints and makes faces like an overgrown prom queen, and Kim Catrall has become an eager and outspoken cougar in menopause (it was cute to use those lines at age forty but at age fifty-two it’s borderline trashy.) Only Miranda seems to have earned being tired and responsible as an attorney. There’s an overall lack of substance to these women now…what used to be charming has become charm-less, and beyond that, they haven’t evolved into women with lives we care about. The storyline hasn’t any drama, until three quarters of the way through the film when Carrie accidentally runs into Aidan (John Corbett) in a desert (yes, a desert.) But despite all its faux pas moments and designer high-heeled shoes its biggest problem is how it culturally insults the depiction of a New York women where we assumedly only love fashion and men’s abs. And how about those ladies in Abu Dabai when the storyline runs out of Manhattan plot. Suddenly an Arabic woman’s lifestyle is explained “Miranda style 101″ and compared to an Empire-State-of-Mind girl. Sorry to disappoint all the fans of which I was one from show number one, but best to drink a lot of Cosmopolitans with girlfriends before you go so you can see the film thru vodka goggles. Two tiaras
