How I learned to Love Liza (Sex and the City 2)

So I've been on CBC TV and Radio for the past couple days cataloguing all the things that are wrong with Sex and the City 2. The never-ending tide of brand-name goods. The guileless zeal the fab four display for their divalicious lifestyle. The colour-blind avalanche of designer disasters.

But....there are a couple things I liked about the sequel.

So in the name of positivity here is (semi spoiler warning...)

A SHORT LIST OF SOME GOOD THINGS IN SATC2:

It's funny. Occasionally. I will say the writer/director Michael Patrick King has a knack for staging the outrageous. Two scenes stick in my mind. First, Carrie and Mr. Big in bed listening to a screaming baby in one room, and Samantha's wild animal sex in the other. Watch the trailer if you want to see the punchline.

Speaking of Samantha, my other favourite moment comes as Sam has just finished proselytizing about the power of vitamins for fighting menopause. Then she sees Charlotte's new nanny, (played by Alice Eve) a voluptuous vision, bounding bra-less towards them. Samantha's mouth hanging wide open crammed with vitamins is classic.

Carrie. I hate to say it but Carrie is still the best character Sarah Jessica Parker has played. When SATC works it's like the best of Woody Allen crossed with Nora Ephron. But I think part of the problem with the sequel is that Carrie's got it all. In the TV series she was still a scrapper. Sure she had the shoes, but only one apartment and hadn't hit it big as a writer. (At least not at the beginning.) Now Carrie has her man, the swanky NYC digs, she's a best selling author with presumably an unlimited credit card. Hard to feel her pain when it's whether to wear Dior or Dolce to dinner.

Liza. Yup, Liza Minnelli. The queen of Carbaret shows up at the ultimate and I mean ultimate gay wedding to officiate. (There are swans!)

Now when she first appeared and spoke, well to be honest, I felt a little sorry for her. But then Liza performed a cover of Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies." Now I'm not a fan, or at least I wasn't. But I gotta say Liza owned that song. She rocked it. Great performance from a real woman that almost, almost made Sex and the City 2 worth seeing.