Sex in the City 2

I believe I have switched on to the TV Show Sex in the City to see what the fuss was about but it was so awful that I could not bear to stay for more than a few moments. Recently the arrival of Sex in the City 2 on Sky films posed too great an opportunity to see what the fuss was about again in relation to the films, the first was released in 2008.

I am assuming from the incredulous 146 minutes of this film which I viewed in less than half an hour via the fast forward button that the attraction from this mass audience box office success that young men feel obliged to take the young girls to see the film at weekends in order to learn what makes a woman happy and the girls go find out the secret of how to remain an independently sexually happy person before the realities of on going relationships and marriage with children as well as the need to marry someone able to enable you to wear the latest fashions.

The difference between the original series and the first film is the passage of two years enjoying what they have striven for and learning getting what you want only lasts until you have got it. There is a reminder of how it all began with a brief return to 1986 as a flashback early on in the film. There is then an extraordinary over the top same sex wedding which appears to have more to do with Busby Berkeley make believe than anything to do with reality and appears to also have nothing to do with the present film.

The film is primarily about the experience of the four women in the make believe Arab city of Abu Dhabi. One of the four has been approached by a Sheik to devised a PR campaign for his business (unlikely nonsense) and then agrees that she can bring the three others with her on an all expenses paid luxury vacation although the film explain why he should do this before she has accomplished the required work unless the point is to sell the value of paying for a luxury vacation. By luxury this means separate first class cabins on the flight out and a top hotel suit with a male butler for each as well as their separate limo’s although for some reason they are allowed to visit the local market quartet without escorts which does not make sense given the rest of what happens on their visit which includes a visit into the desert for a luxury picnic and camel ride.

One of the quartet encounters a former boyfriend and during a “harmless” look back date they kiss about which she has much angst feels obliged to admit to her husband. Their relationship has reached a difficult stage where he is content to stay home and watch giant screen TV including adding one to their bedroom. She wants to dine out and socialise while he is content with home delivery and on their anniversary she gives him a Rolex hoping for jewellery in return but he produces the TV. He produces a black diamond ring to remind of their relationship and the big screen TV has gone.

Samantha the PR lady is a single 52 and self conscious about the impact of the approaching menopause on her love life. She lives by a manual of drug remedies which are confiscated at the airport. During the desert trip she encounters a wild Dane and back in the city there is public display of sexual interest which lands her in jail and a record and to cancellation of the PR contract offer and an end of further paying for expense of their luxury lifestyle so they are forced to quickly return home.

The third of the quartet is the most stupid in that until the others draw attention she thinks nothing of the fact that her hired help has big boobs and does not wear a Bra and has everyman she encounters leering at her. The woman has become preoccupied with her own inadequacies and demands as a mother of two undisciplined children, for which she appears to have no natural abilities. She panics at the thought of her husband alone with the nanny while she is away but she had no need to worry because on return she discovers the nanny is a lesbian. The fourth member has quit her job because she has just worked out the reality of working in competitive capitalism. In Abu D the two mothers commiserates with their lot and the fourth woman confesses she misses work, the loss of identity and hates domesticity. Back home she finds a job where she is appreciated.

The four women have to visit the market for some last minute shopping where they enrage the local men by their appearance and behaviour and are rescued by several Arab women appropriate dressed complete with the Burka. However the woman are meeting in secret to discuss the same book which has become the bible for Samantha and under their black outfits they are wearing the latest New York fashions, proving that cutting across races and religions here are the same number and level of irresponsible, self centres, emotionally driven too much money and time for their own good females. I am not sure what is the moral message of the film except that perhaps Muslim Arab men have the right approach? I think not. That hot sex is preferable to marriage and children? Perhaps! Although there is a price to pay if you disregard local conventions. The film is in the same ilk as those Joan Collins movies about disco night clubs and the airport bookshop holiday blockbusters or do I mean bonkbusters? Or as a tennis player I admire once said. You can’t be serious. The film grossed three times the original $100 million now that is serious and News of the World.