Sex and the City 2 reviewed by Mark Kermode

Sex in the City - you might have seen the posters you might be wondering where the marks going to like it just to reminders we did mention earlier - Gabby you did say it when you went to see the first one and then go and see the first one because if you do you'll only encourage them to make another one and um well obviously they did they did but loads of people I think this will be number one next week and I should say right at the beginning of this you're not going to get a rant about this because it's one of those things like you know I mean it's the parental thing about I'm not I'm not angry I'm just I'm disappointed I mean it's my expectations were low and I have to say they were they were met um it's ghastly and I spent quite a lot of time in the last week trying to figure out exactly what it is that is so ghastly and putrid and vomit-inducing about Sex and the City 2 so essentially um you know as I said if you went to see the first one this is kind of your fault it's about hundred forty-six minutes long which is about the same length as 2001 and in 2001 as I've said before Stanley Kubrick goes from the birth of mankind to the birth of a new species and you know and connection with the extraterrestrials and insects in the city - it goes from a group of totally consumerist obsessed caricatures who end up as a group of totally consumed obsessed caricatures anyway the plot it starts with a with a big gay wedding okay and there is a big gay wedding which they keep referring to as a gay wedding so he doesn't call it a gay wedding but it's so gay that apparently when this much gay energy is in the room these are lines from the film incidentally Liza Minnelli will manifest and so Liza Minnelli comes on and officiate at the wedding and it's the kind of guy that you could only make if basically you know it's like gay men making jokes about gay men I mean to be honest with you this the whole thing about sex and cities it appears that it's quite what's the phrase it's jump the shark it's gone from being about a group of women which I'm reliably informed at the television series was to basically being about a group of men in drag that is what it is and it sort of tells you this at the very beginning when they have the big gay wedding which is an in-joke which if anybody else was making it you've gone sorry this is stereotypical and just not funny and crass and would you stop doing it so anyway Liza Minnelli turns up because everything's so gay fine this is the beginning of the film then we have some stuff meeting the characters again and then one of them gets off at a first-class ticket to up dubby and says I'm going to take all my girlfriends with me so they go on tour and this of course is a plot device which is you know known from all movies that based on television series that run out of steam the example that I was going to use although somebody writing in has already mentioned it is not carry on up the Khyber which a lot of other people have mentioned but is in fact are you being served a movie in which they go to the coast of Lanka and it's all that mrs. Slocombe unit oh I'm working all that stuff it is essentially that was the only diaphragm oh yes I think actually it's the same actor plays both roles and so that is what you get and the central idea this time is that they are older and therefore they are dealing with age and and here's a clip of them dealing with age oh that's a whole lot of health how many you work in there 44 I'm on the one a day Fruity Pebbles plan women our age shouldn't joke about vitamins well women who are not our age shouldn't say women our age well one day very soon you will thank me I am leading the way through the menopause maze with my vitamins my melatonin sleep patches my by identical estrogen cream progesterone cream a touch of testosterone she's the hormone whisperer I am I've tricked my body into thinking it's younger I've tricked my body into thinking it's thinner Spanx and I'm telling you no hot flashes no mood swings in my sex drive it's right back to where it was free I hadn't heard so um the I've tricked my body into thinking it's thinner if any of you or any other thinner any thinner you wouldn't exist and has been pointed out by everybody for a film which primarily consists of people sitting around eating food they don't appear to have eaten at all so there's been an awful lot written by women about just how grotesque a portrayal of women this is that they are basically obsessed with their bodies obsessed with husbands obsessed with with sex obsessed with you know nothing other than that except with consumers there really isn't any not much to add to that other than to say is that a problem what's wrong with it them because basically it's its entire portrayal of female liberation is the right to buy expensive shoes okay and and and and I don't believe for one minute these people are depictions of real them I just don't I'm sorry I don't believe it if there are then mistaken I just don't I don't believe that real people in the real world are as ghastly as this however I'd like to move this on slightly from this from sex war politics to class war politics which for me was the overbear I mean I think that its portrayal of women in general is just horrible I mean you worried about killer inside me believe me but it's the class war issue here which is this right firstly you are meant to be engaged with these characters who are just stinking wealthy and consumers beyond your wildest dreams the main one the one played by Sarah Jessica Parker appears to write books right although we never actually see arriving and then she goes sits down and does a little bit of fiddling around she lives in an apartment with her husband who in order to be to be sort of funding the department is probably an arms dealer well it's never really discussed you know where all their money's coming from and it's and she gets cross with him because at one point he buys her a massive flat-screen television and she's crossed that he hasn't bought her a bit of jewelry and then because their relationship is a little bit on top of each other they she goes back to her other apartment which they've just kept on she has a whole other apartment okay so they have one lavish apartment massive television huge amounts of wealth massive amount of clothes walk-in wardrobe that you could put a family in then she goes off to another apartment that she hasn't bothered to sell because nobody because we're all so wealthy and then she moans and complains about how awful her life is and isn't this difficult I really have to get away you know I have to get away from all this so point number one point number two tour what was the point the point is first why do I care about this character this is a character who has so much money so much wealth for actually having two apartments she still oh god so hard so difficult I'm having problems with my relationship the defining moment for me is she goes to this hotel which is twenty-two thousand dollars a night okay but she's getting it on the three and when they arrive each one of them is given their own personal exotic flunky who then waits on them hand on foot hat in hand you'd expect that for twenty two thousand and nine and there yes but no point is anyone's I'm sorry this is just ghastly beyond belief that with horrible fights their choice of film so what happens is that at one moment the flunky who she has been given who you know who says points out that actually he can only go and see his wife once every couple of months because the airfare is expensive right and you expect this to be a moment when she suddenly realizes that the ghastly wealth that she's living with has a consequence that there are people at random have less money but oh this is used as a moment so that she can go oh yes I have to be away from mr. big sometimes as well therefore its are you going I can't believe you've just done this you've gone you stinking ly wealthy consumer is dripping with golf shoes bloody buddy but he doesn't have enough money to go through and what you've seen in this isn't horrible staggering inequality of just corpulent filthy lucre but oh yes we both have the same issue which is to do with being a part of my loved one point number one okay it's as the old trot at the barricades isn't it I'm sorry this is this was the point at which I starting and then comrades come rally sorry okay as for the rest of them as for the rest like was that what that's the internationally one of them is a lawyer right who is not treated well at work so quit at no point does anybody in her marriage say what I'm worried about the money no that's not an issue because obviously they looked up which means one or two things either the money that she was earning was nothing at all which is unlikely cuz she's a lawyer or the money that she's reading is completely in significance they've got money coming out of their ears they've got some money who would possibly get another one is a woman who is a mother who has a full-time nanny assistant but who still finds time to go and cry in the food cupboard because she's so oppressed by having to do the childcare and the child puts jammy hands on her vintage Scott Irwin meant to sympathise and then there's a moment of self-reflexiveness in which he says Oh what on earth two people who don't have help do not to the screen the rest of us going oh the serfs you know if we were in a Sex in the City movie we'd be the help we'd be the serfs we'd be the person opening the door so all that stuff going on fine then there's the race relations issue which is they go to a foreign country where people dress differently the main character the screamy one who's you know complained not you know Samantha I think her name is who's all the time going on about her sex life ends up throwing condoms at these people say you know I'm a woman I have sex this is meant to be the great liberating them is in fact the main message of the world is I'm a woman I have bye-bye shoes I am a consumerist but you should show she could throw her shoes the twist of the movie is that it turns out that under the burkas you know under the under the full dress actually all women are wearing designer deals that the minute they get in the same room as all the sexy but they go oh look we're all just as vacuous and shallow and horrible and consumer is obsessed as the rescue so essentially the message of the film is this feel sympathy for people who are disgustingly wealthy and so disgustingly wealthy that they not only don't notice having a spare apartment not only don't notice losing the income from a job not only don't notice that one of the people they're employing is so poor that you can only go before to go and see his wife once every three months not only that but are also imperialist American pig dogs of the highest order when it comes to become an hour he realism I mean honestly I tell you it's one of those things you just go this is a satire right this has it's not the gender politics as I said I will leave that to women who have written much more you know authoritative ly outraged commentaries about this than I have I would refer you incidentally to in the stranger this column by Lindy West I think it as many people have tweeted about this I can't read any of it out because it's scorchingly rude but it's it but on the class world politics it is your moment disc don't say it like that well you have got you did say I'm not going around you did say I am NOT going to rent and that was about ten it is consumerist pornography it is an orgy of dripping you know do just dripping wealth that made me want to be sick

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 1,294,053

Keywords: bbc, radio, live, film, review, sex, and, the, city, sarah, jessica, parker, kim, catrall, mark, kermode, simon, mayo, charlotte, miranda, big, dubai, abu, dabi

Id: uHeQeHstrsc

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/jonrosling]

I distinctly remember listening to this while stuck in traffic in Sheffield City centre. I was laughing so much I was getting odd looks from the passers by.

[u/yohji_yeo]

Hello to Jason Isaacs

[u/daveofreckoning]

Check out his Entourage review.

[u/SmashingK]

Kermode is best movie critic for me lol.

Before covid I'd listen to him on the radio in my car.

[u/shy247er]

"if you went to the first one, this is kind of your fault"

[u/Neutral_Positron]

Wow, I need to see more of this guy

[u/RushmoreAlumni]

"You're not going to get a rant."

Ten minutes later

"COMRADES COME RALLY!"

[u/[deleted]]

"My expectations were low, and they were met" - LOL

[u/Brendy_]

Kermode belting out The Internationale will forever be in my Top 10 film critique moments.