Overrated
No doubt the producers of "Sex and the City 2" take comfort in the $165 million the film grossed in its first two weeks, but what a cheap and cheesy second act it is. "Sex" is a dated franchise that should never have left HBO, but we'll give it a pass for its first big-screen incarnation. As for No. 2? Yucko, from the ghastly gay-wedding clichés (swans/Liza Minnelli) to the improbable guilt that overwhelms now-married Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) after she indulges in a chaste smooch with her former lover Aidan (John Corbett). Could anybody but a plastic surgeon possibly care about these hapless, brittle, overindulged dames with their inane chatter and -- gasp -- banal clothes?
Underrated
How did Audrey do it? "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a vintage 1961 romantic comedy with an improbably sentimental plot about a runaway waif turned New York sophisticate (Audrey Hepburn) and her impossibly clichéd suitors (drug kingpin, rich dolt, suave South American, impoverished writer). Throw in a few Givenchy gowns, a fabulous cigarette holder, some enormous sunglasses and an Academy Award-winning song, "Moon River" by the incomparable Johnny Mercer. Hang it all on Hepburn's soignée shoulders and you've got a cinematic classic.
MARY ABBE
