Writing a review of the new Sex and the City movie seems superfluous.  Fans of the show are going to see the movie no matter what the critics say and those who haven’t seen any of the show or even the first movie are not likely to give in now.  A review seems especially unnecessary coming from a source about as far away from the film’s target audience as possible, but I did actually somewhat enjoy the first film and expected to get a similar enjoyment out of its sequel.  The story, however, just isn’t quite there this time around.

It’s been two years since Carrie and Mr. Big finally got hitched at the end of the first movie and they are now struggling through what Carrie labels “the terrible twos.”  The excitement of being together has worn off a bit and Carrie is worried about Big’s being satisfied to just sit at home and watch old movies with takeout for dinner every night. She becomes even more upset when he suggests that maybe two days apart every week might be just what they need to spice up the sparkle.  What a great time for Carrie to get away with the girls.  It just so happens that Samantha is about to embark on a PR trip to Abu Dhabi and she can bring her three girlfriends along.

The rest of the girls are having difficulties of their own.  Charlotte is struggling with the stresses of motherhood, made worse by the bra-free nanny her husband can’t seem to keep his eyes off of.  Miranda, meanwhile, is in between jobs and actually learning how to live life a little.  Samantha’s problems don’t really start until they get to Abu Dhabi where liberated women tend to clash with the culture, and age-defying drugs are not allowed through customs.

Not having watched the television show, I asked a friend who was a fan to give me a brief idea and she described it as “Seinfeld for women.”  I’m not sure if everyone would agree with that description, but I can definitely see the comparison while watching Sex and the City 2; even more so than the first film.  Much of the show features the four leads sitting around gabbing about their surroundings.  These surroundings are as diverse as an extravagant gay wedding and the more conservative Middle East.  They make humorous comments about the people around them, often courtesy of a dryly delivered one-liner from Sarah Jessica Parker.  The movie is also loaded with a lot of very broad humor and the movie that kept popping into my head as I watched was Ben Stiller’s Zoolander.

There is a lot of good humor in this movie, but its spread fairly thin thanks to a somewhat weak plot that might fill an hour of television, but can’t carry a nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie.  The plotlines are also fairly familiar and it’s pretty clear where everything is going.  Writer/director Michael Patrick King also struggles to find a good structure for the film and it often seems as if it is rambling until it is blatantly obvious that they had to find a quick way to end the girls’ desert vacation.

Of course, part of the problem is that in order to please his target audience, King must take every opportunity to show off a fancy pair of shoes, a uniquely cut dress, or an extravagant piece of headwear.  Sex and the City is not just a movie, it’s also a fashion show, but I have a hard time believing that women walk around their own apartments in high heels, make cupcakes in designer dresses, or wear hats on an airplane that are bigger than the plane itself.

The first Sex and the City movie did an excellent job of upgrading from cable to the big screen, but even an exotic location can’t keep the sequel from feeling like it should have been back in the living room.

Sex and the City 2 is rated R for “some strong sexual content and language.”  A lot of sex jokes and suggestions of male genitalia are more than enough to warrant the film’s R rating.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Sex and the City 2.