Camp, stereotypes, big fashion, beautiful scenery, drama and drama and just over the top, all you expect from Sex and the City and for good cause. I went in looking for a good time and got it. Some fans might feel disappointed or not satisfied, but I was. The movie is just plain predictable but it is from the women we love. There are gay stereotypes a plenty but all the hot men compensate for it. It is 2 hours and a half, I could have done without all the Big/Carrie melodrama and Samantha complaining about her hot flashes. The movie starts with the City, which we do see a bit of... it isn't all desert, the girls are in NYC for like 45 minutes. Carrie serves us a flashback to the girls in the 80's in horrible outfits, only Samantha looked fitting. Then we are served the wedding of Stanford and Anthony (Mario Cantone).
The wedding is fun and they get to spend time with it. They go to Abu Dhabi (a.k.a. Moracco) because Samantha was offered a business deal by a rich benefactor to Smith's new movie. We barely see Smith (Jason Lewis) as he cameos. Actually, we barely see any of the Girls' men. The dilemmas the girls have in the movie are the following: Carrie fears being a run-of-the-mill marriage as Big just likes to get take out, lay on the couch and watch TV and she wants 'sparkle'; Charlotte fears her husband might be into her young babysitter with no bra; Miranda is being snubbed by a jackass of a boss and quits; and Samantha is finally the sex hound we all know and love--she didn't get to romp around last movie but this time she does! Oh, her problem? Menopause. So we all know Carrie meets Aidan on vacation and they go out to dinner, and Carrie is tempted to maybe cheat, Charlotte warns her to not play with fire.
So independent sexual women plopped into the middle east? Conflict? Yes, plenty but in an almost cartoonish fashion. It is all predictable, but fun. Even though the girls do try to 'respect' the culture, they do 'disrepect' it at every turn. The fun of watching in the theater with a bunch of women, they all reacted at the same time. When we see women in burka/bikinis, they groan. When Carrie kisses someone, they go 'oh no.' And when Samantha is showing off condoms to angry middle eastern men? They scream 'hell yeah.' I was a little pissed off (and it was funny) when a gentleman (clearly a straight man date dragged there) asked me and my girlfriends to 'stop chatting.' I told him 'yeah' sarcastically. I WAS LIKE, YOU CAME TO THE WRONG MOVIE. Everyone was chatting. And he then continued to chat with his wife and laughing loud. We just moved down a seat from the clueless man. Carrie would not stand for that. Samantha would have sat with a big hat in front of him and laughed really loud.
As for the fashion... WHAT WAS UP WITH CARRIE WITH THE FREAKING FOUR-LEAF CLOVER NECKLACE? She would always have it on! Pretty much everytime she was in America, she never wore it on vacation and went back to it after she came back. Also, a nice touch was that when Carrie went to see Aidan, she put on dark eyeliner and a crescent moon necklace---symbolizing transition. All of Charolete's outfits were over the top and ugly. A cute scene included Big being hit on by a gay version of himself at the wedding. Cameos included Miley Cyrus, Liza Minnelli, Penolepe Cruz and Tim Gunn. Nudity includes the bare asses of Noah Mills (as Anthony's brother Niki) and Max Ryan (as a dutch dude) -- both conquests of Samantha. Also the nipples (through clothing) of Charolete's daughters' nanny, plus plenty of banana hammocks (bulges and a boner).SPOILERS
I don't like how in the end, the heronie has to be 'punished,' even if jokingly, by a man. That if makes one wrong move and she has to conform to something she doesn't like doing (wearing diamond ring). I wish the girls were stronger when it came to important stuff, but they are only strong and in control when it comes to superfluous consumerism. When they are asked to pack in a hour and have to deal with 'bad men,' they act like chickens with their heads cut off.
And the guy who hit on Big I think was Michael T. Weiss, a.k.a. 'The Pretender,' it was a sci-fi show on NBC in the late 90's.
