Sex and the City 2 (2010) Director: Michael Patrick King

Sex and the City 2 welcomes back old friends who quickly outstay their welcome. The film has a promising start, with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) coming back together for the wedding of Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone), with the ceremony lead by Liza Minelli. It's a scream! The script is still sharp and the characters are developed well with Carrie and Big's (Chris Noth) marriage hitting a hiatus, Miranda having the new boss from hell, Samantha fighting off the menopause and Charlotte struggling to cope with her two demanding, screaming children and being fearful of her hot Nanny's (Alice Eve) tendency to not wear a bra.

Two hours of this I could have taken. Two hours in Manhattan, with cosy characters that you know and love and perhaps one or two celebrity cameos. But no. The script then descends into an extraordinary atrocity and one of such casual racism, when the girls take a free PR trip to Abu Dhabi. This is wear Sex and the City jumps the shark.

Ladies and Gents, here is the evidence:

- Samantha meets some Danish hot stuff and starts fondling him, which causes outrage to the 'locals'. Cue lines of "Abu Dhabi is so backwards when it comes to sex!" and when making out with Mr Dane back in America, it's good to be back in the "land of the free".
- The girls stare at local women in burqas eating french fries. "How are they going to eat them?" "Oh look at them, surpressing their desires".
- Comments at a group of belly dancers in the hotel nightspot - "Why are those women allowed to show their bellies?" "Oh, those clever, religious men!"
- An excruciating scene where Samantha throws condoms at local men in the Souq and shouts 'Yes, I have sex!", then mimicks thrusting, only for the girls to be hidden by a group of women who reveal they are wearing designer clothes under their burqas. They then allow the SATC girls to escape by wearing burqas.

It's a painful second half of the movie; totally ill-informed and with no place in contemporary cinema.

Please. No More. It's time for the girls to retire gracefully and hang up their Manolos. Let's end it here.
2/5