Sex and the City 2

I rather ignored this movie when it came out as it got so universally panned, not least by Mark Kermode (of which more in a minute) but it's come back into my consciousness over the last couple of days.

I'd seen the trailer on YouTube at the time it came out and it didn't look too bad. Pretty vacuous, but the Sex and the City always was. I actually own the complete box set of every TV episode¹ which I starting watching one winter migraine season a few years ago (having finished The West Wing, again) but I struggled with it and gave up some time in season 3. I think it ran to six seasons in the end.

But what brought me up short was the discovery a couple of days ago on YouTube of this compilation of the "best" bits of Samantha in the movie.

It all starts off harmlessly enough² if you like that sort of thing but it really starts to get objectionable from about 05:00 onwards. Don't know where to start really but it's quite horrible, especially in its attitude to the people of the region but in a host of other ways too. It manages to be sexist, racist, and ignorant of cultural values, often all at the same time.

Mark Kermode had to sit through the whole thing. This is his take on it³. It's a mighty fine rant where he also talks some other elements to do with class which aren't obvious from the video clips above.

You'll not be surprised that it subsequently came top of his list of "worst movies of 2010" so they played that rant again in full on last Friday's show.

Anyway I'm off to learn the words of The Internationale so I can join Kermode on the barricades.

1. By the way, in the unlikely event that you'd like to buy this off me feel free to make me an offer, however paltry, before I finally get around to putting in on eBay.
2. Assuming you like bouncing breasts filmed in slow motion. Oh OK, it's a fair cop. And there's some good beefcake for the ladies after that.
3. This is the audio from this original video clip if you want to see him talking, not that it adds a lot.