I'm an English person of no religious faith at all, but the way this film treats Islamic culture is so deeply offensive I literally couldn't watch at points. The four characters we have learnt to love over the series are made to be characters I literally despise in this hideously misguided sequel. They come across as ignorant, brash and horrible tourists who flagrantly disregard Islamic modesty laws while on holiday in Abu Dhabi and show little respect or courtesy in a foreign land. The scene where Samantha goes insane and starts throwing condoms at braying men is particularly embarrassing, followed by the girls rescue by a group of women in burkhas who then whip them off to reveal designer clothes beneath. The film doesn't set to dispel any myths about Middle Eastern culture, instead it actively enforces these stereotypes and makes them seem laughable and stupid, and worse encourages them to be disregarded and mocked by Western audiences. We are never given a sense of what Aby Dhabi is actually like; like stupid American tourists the girls spend little time outside of their luxury five star hotel and when they do eventually leave the Moroccan souk they visit couldn't look more like a studio set if it tried. The girls walk around with bare arms and legs as if this would have no repercussions in an Islamic country; the sad reality is this behaviour would see them swamped with lecherous men as happened to my friends during a visit to Morocco.
What makes everything worse is the way the characters have been turned into grotesque parodies of their formers selves. Before the love of clothes of materialism was balanced by a sense of friendship; now the girls have simply become rich, ungrateful, moaning middle aged annoyances. Their gratuitous love of wealth is pathetic and stupid and the comparison of Carrie having to spend time away from Big when directly compared to an Indian hotel worker being forced to spend time away from his wife is insensitive. Charlotte struggling to look after two children when she is a stay at home mum with a full time nanny is also extremely insensitive seeing as she has it so easy.
A horrible film that ruined the heartfelt and intelligent series. Complete and utter horror was my only reaction.
What makes everything worse is the way the characters have been turned into grotesque parodies of their formers selves. Before the love of clothes of materialism was balanced by a sense of friendship; now the girls have simply become rich, ungrateful, moaning middle aged annoyances. Their gratuitous love of wealth is pathetic and stupid and the comparison of Carrie having to spend time away from Big when directly compared to an Indian hotel worker being forced to spend time away from his wife is insensitive. Charlotte struggling to look after two children when she is a stay at home mum with a full time nanny is also extremely insensitive seeing as she has it so easy.
A horrible film that ruined the heartfelt and intelligent series. Complete and utter horror was my only reaction.