'Sex and the City 2'

'Sex and the City 2' (R) (1 1/2 stars)

Writer and Director: Michael Patrick King
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, John Corbett

What a smug, arrogant, phony and terrible movie "Sex and the City 2" is! I am not a huge fan of the show. I liked the first year of the HBO series but grew tired after that and now I know why. There is only so much time you can spend with four selfish women before you can't take it anymore. The first "Sex and the City" was well written and actually fun and sane. I gave up on them on television but I enjoyed the movie for what it was and though overlong it was simply fun. I don't know what happened but this second film is so sluggish, annoying and ridiculous. I even think fans of the show and first movie will be a little disappointed. The movie and show are called "Sex and the City" so why would you spend a lot of time in this movie out of the city and in the desert for a stupid story. I knew after the opening where the ladies go to a gay marriage and see Liza Minelli butcher the Beyonce song "Single Ladies" we were in trouble. The four women are in some ways not happy in their lives. So when Samantha wants the group to go to the Middle East for a movie premiere she invites all of them. Carrie is not happy because since they bought a couch her husband just wants to sit home and watch television. In one of the stupidest scenes in the whole movie husband buys Carrie a big flat screen TV as a gift for them to watch movies together. She is mad because, get this, he could have bought her jewelry instead because the television is too impersonal. So she actually has the nerve to criticize his gift and substitute it for another material item like jewelry. This is the start of why these characters now seem to be selfish bitches. The television would be for both of them but jewelry is better for her even though she refuses to wear a wedding ring? If there is a third movie I hope he divorces her because everything she says to her husband revolves around her. None of the four women should ever be allowed to be married especially when the movie treats the husbands as background fodder. They never have an intelligent thing to say and they are treated like they don't exist. I couldn't take anymore of these smug characters after a while.

The movie gets worse when they travel to the Middle East. The movie gets very stupid, the women get more arrogant and obnoxious and the movie gets very sloppy. It is horribly written, the direction is some of the worst I have seen and the movie ends with a half hour of stupidity piled on top of stupidity. Kim Catrall is the only very good thing here and she is funny and I like her delivery of her lines. Kristin Davis does not give a good performance and like I said before the men don't register. Chris Noth is giving nothing to work with and John Corbett gives a smug performance. Also the Middle Eastern characters are shallowly written and embarrassing cliches and stereotypes. What "Sex and the City 2" has done is ruined what was a decent show and first movie and turned it into schlock. I couldn't stand one more minute with these arrogant, smug and obnoxious women. I think it is time to say goodbye to "Sex and the City" for good now.