Sex And The City 2 Nominated… But Not For An Oscar

The Golden Raspberry awards are “presented in recognition of the worst in film.” Sex And The City 2 has been nominated for seven of them.

The big-budget film about four women who go to a lavish gay wedding and then fly off for an adventure in the middle east — where they sing “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar” at a karaoke bar and throw condoms in the air — is up for Worst Picture, Worst Actress (all four “gal pals”), Worst Supporting Actress (Liza Minnelli), Worst Director (Michael Patrick King), Worst Screen Ensemble (the entire cast), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Ripoff or Sequel.

The film, which was called a “painfully clichéd” “epic eyesore,” earned a domestic gross of about $95,347,692. Which seems like a lot of money! Until you consider that the budget was $100 million. There were all kinds of marketing attempts: A partnership with Skyy Vodka; deals with Moët & Chandon Champagne, Lipton Sparkling Surprise tea and Hewlett-Packard; and a lookbook treating the costumes as though they were museum-worthy. But the flick fell flat at the box office and elicited scores of scathing reviews. One of the best was by Helen Razer, who wrote:

Your movie has lain itself on the rock of female self-loathing, asked late-capitalism to gang-bang it, please, and then drown it in a bukkake-tsunami of product placement.

This is not a movie but an advertising medium strangely complicit in its own rape and murder.

Ouch! Well, perhaps everyone involved will feel better when they win a Razzie? The award itself usually costs about $5, and is a “golf ball-sized raspberry” sitting on a Super 8 mm film reel, both of which have been spray-painted gold. Of course, SATC2 has some stiff competition: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Last Airbender tied for most nominations.