Sunday, May 30, 2010

Glad SATC 2 is kicking butt at the box office but wish the movie was better.

Prince of Persia, which costs a ton of money to make, is not doing well. Not sure who thought Jake was an action star. It came in at number #3 this weekend. It was expected to rule the box office.

*** edited 6/1 now box office estimates have Shrek at number #1. The studios are going to be arguing about the number 2 spot for a while.****

I went to see SATC 2 (in English) with some girlfriends Friday night.

I'm happy a female driven flim is making a mint so maybe more will be greenlit.

However, for the love of God, please bring back the female writers. The wit, charm and depth from the series is completely missing in SATC 2.

It's like the writer/director took all the criticism from the first one and said, "I'll show you shallow, ignorant, tone deaf, materialistic and unaware of their privilege women in their 40s and 50s who act like children."

The reviews of this movie were beyond scathing. I thought, well it's sexism and ageism.

While some of the reviews are just that, the Middle Eastern setting of the film is problematic.

It's sad to see such great characters reduced to caricatures.

I think Women & Hollywood brings up some great points.

The movie brought to mind some issues I have been thinking about lately. Why is it that gay men have become the purveyors of women’s stories? Is there something more comfortable about a gay man telling women’s stories than women doing it ourselves? Is it easier for Hollywood executives to write the check to a man for an obscene amount of money that they would never do for a woman? It made me think about Mamma Mia, a movie written and directed by women. That movie has made over a half a billion worldwide. We know there are tons of Abba songs out there, yet no noise about a sequel. Just makes me wonder.

When watching Sex and the City 2 I thought that a woman would never have made this movie. She could never get away with it. It’s not only a female fantasy, but it’s a gay male fantasy of women — that we all wear couture and three inch heels to take out the garbage. Because it is a movie it has lost some of the bite of the series and I also think that the series benefited from having women’s voices as part of the writing. They kept it grounded in some semblance of reality.

But this movie is not a hard look at reality. It’s a summer escape movie just like all the movies that blow shit up. You don’t think that guys who go see Iron Man have any expectation of becoming like Iron Man (except in their fantasies), just like I don’t expect to ever be able to fit in or wear a versace skirt. Women know this is not real, in fact 76% of the people (mostly women) who took a survey on fandango.com look at the film as a “great escape.”

9 comments:

Sara, Ms Adventures in Italy said...

saw this today...it was definitely crap...I was disapppointed. They turned it from a character-driven story to a circumstantial/location-driven story which did not go well. The middle east storyline was not appreciated (I notice that they didn't bring the Mexican people into the storyline in the first one) etc...

rinaz said...

Urgh, I'd never watch SATC 2, the trailer by itself was already horrigible, even worse than SATC 1.

Its a pity though, though I totally love the tv series. The last season especially, the scene where Carrie goes to Paris and stumbles upon a restaurant where 4 French girls were laughing, enjoying each other's company.

That scene gets to me all the time.

Rose in Cali said...

These ladies need to stay in the city. SATC + Travel = Jump the Shark. What a waste!

Anonymous said...

I thought the WHOLE point of SATC was that it it was a homage to NYC. Why are they off in the desert somewhere?
I was a fan of the series but not so much since it hit the big screen. What made it appealing in the first place was the honesty about life, love and relationships. Now, it just seems superficial and the characters remind me of those Real Housewives bot women.

Ms. Violetta

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

sara - I agree.

rinaz - in a weird way this one was more entertaining because it was so over the top bad.

rose - exactly. I love road trips but come on. Where the heck was the plot?

violetta - one review called it, "too little sex and no city." ha

Shannon said...

I'm so sad to hear all the bad reviews for this movie. The previews seemed sketch, but I figured it had to be better. Seems like I;ll be waiting for it to get to Netflix.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

shannon - Maybe the problem was the first movie tied up all the loose ends. I heard a rumor earlier in the year that the plot was Mr. Big had lost all his money in the financial crisis. I wonder how that movie would have turned out.

Claudia said...

I'm probably one of the few women that did not follow the series, and did not see the first movie-but I went with friends to see the second...obviously I had no expectations--but I did get a laugh out of the antics...

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

C - the writer/director did say they wanted to make a romp. I do think people who watched the series definitely have more expectations for the movies.