Between those gaps and the holes

Wahey! Two blog posts in two days? I'm back baby! Having a very chilled out Saturday today, which is nice - tidying, catching up on TV and doing a bit of blogging. Might even film a video later, depending on how the light in my room is. Hope you're all having lovely weekends whatever you're up to!

I'm currently loving;

Downton Abbey. I've been majorly slow to jump on the bandwagon with this one, as it's been out for ages but it was just one of those things I never got around to watching it. Anyway, my Mum got the first series on DVD for Christmas and I am ADDICTED. It's so good! Even Joe's enjoying it and he really didn't think he would as he's not a big fan of period dramas. Give it a go if you've not done so already!

2012. I've decided that this year is going to be the year I finally sort my life out and become a proper, real grown up. I've already got a new job lined up (starting in a few weeks!) and Joe and I have been house-hunting like crazy. It's all very exciting but quite daunting at the same time, part of me thinks I'm Peter Pan and will never really grow up but I think it's time to accept that. actually, I'm 24 now and need to take on some responsibilities instead of procrastinating all the time. Aimée, who writes The Lost Girl, posted four new year's resolutions and one of them really stood out to me - Be Pro-active. This is something I really need to work on, so I've decided to steal borrow it and make it my resolution too! Thanks Aimée!

My babies. I know I said in my last post that I'm not feeling particularly inspired when it comes to nail art at the moment, but I'm still loving painting my nails as much as ever. I realised recently that I've always loved collecting things - throughout my childhood I went through phases where I was obsessed with, in no particular order, Pogs, Polly Pockets, Puppy In My Pockets, My Beautiful Horses, Beanie Babies and, for a while, I had absolutely loads of those weird alien toys that came in Frufoo yoghurts - anyone remember them? Anyway, now the collecting obsession seems to have moved on to nail varnishes and I can only see this getting worse before it gets better...

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I was a bit hesitant to go and see this, because, having read the book, I was scared that it was going to be very hard to watch. To be fair, it was quite horrible in parts but I knew what to expect so was prepared when those bits came up. I did enjoy it though - Rooney Mara is absolutely brilliant. They did change a few details, but for the most part, the film stays very true to the book, which is always a major concern of mine when a book is made into a film. I know a lot of people think it's mad that the Swedish films were only released in the past couple of years, so it's silly to do a remake already, but I guess it means that all of those people who don't like to watch films with subtitles can still see it? Obviously, it's really just another example of Hollywood cashing in on a successful foreign film (Vanilla Sky, The Ring, Let The Right One In, etc etc) but I did actually think it was very well done, so I can't criticise the Hollywood bigshots too much!

This video. Joe's band, Man Get Out, are launching their new single at the end of the month and they've just done a music video to go with it. I think it's rather bloody good, if I do say so myself! If you're based in or near Liverpool and fancy seeing some very lovely live music, the launch is taking place on January 28th at Mojo and is being presented by BBC Radio 2 DJ, Janice Long, who's a big fan of the boys. (shameless plug over...)

I'm currently hating;

Erm... nothing really! Happy days!

July noted

Somehow, we seem to be over halfway through July and I've yet to do my monthly update post - bad Franki! Anyway, here it is, better late than never, right? RIGHT?!

I'm currently loving;

Festival funsies. You may have noticed that I've been holidaying a lot lately - Glamping in May, Lanzarote in June and I got back from Lisbon in Portugal last week. I'm really not the sort of person that normally goes on loads of holiday, it's just how things have worked out recently. Obviously, I'm not complaining though! Lisbon was fab - I went with Tash and a few guy friends and we spent the first couple of days checking out the city (and lounging by our hotel pool) and the rest of our time was spent at the AMAZING Optimus Alive Festival. We were actually a little bit concerned that when we got to Portugal, we'd discover that the festival didn't really exist because nobody had heard of it, fortunately though, it did exist in a massive way! I'm pretty much the worst person ever when it comes to music and bands (I'm a musical theatre girl through and through) so I'm probably not the obvious person to go to a massive music festival, but I had loads of fun and saw some amazing bands including Foo Fighters, Primal Scream, Bombay Bicycle Club and Fleet Foxes. I'm so up for going back next year - Glastonbury and the other British festivals look like fun, but a festival with guaranteed sunshine and no mud whatsoever is far more my cup of tea :)

Churros. Being the foody that I am, I had to make the most of all the different food stalls at the festival - most of it was pretty standard - burgers, pizzas, kebabs etc - but there was also a waffle and churros stand which sold the most amazing chocolate filled churros. I had one every day and I'm not even a little bit sorry.

My new vintage skirt. I bought this at a vintage fair in Liverpool just before we went to Lisbon and I think it's fabulous. The label inside it is BhS and it's in really good condition so I'm not sure just how 'vintage' it really is. Saying that though I'm definitely getting a very 90s vibe from the pattern, so it could be at least 11 years old - who can say for sure?

One Day. I've been meaning to read this for ages and when Tash offered to lend me it last week, I said yespleasethankyouverymuch. The basic premise is that Dexter and Emma meet on the day they graduate from uni and stay in touch, despite their lives going in very different directions. Each chapter in the book takes place on the same day (15th July) but a year later, so we basically see how their lives unfold over twenty years. I've been reading it for the past few days and sat down on Sunday night to read a few more chapters before bed but then got to a really good bit, couldn't put it down and stayed up until 1am to finish it. I'd definitely recommend it, though I must warn you, it's a bit of a weepy one. It's been made into a film starring Anne Hathaway and comes out next month, though I'm not sure I'll bother seeing it as, having just watched the trailer, it's really annoyed me how Anne Hathaway is doing a really bad generic British accent, even though her character is meant to be from Yorkshire. Hey producers! Crazy idea - why not just cast a British actress who can actually do the correct accent in the first place?!

This video. I've still not seen the final Harry Potter film as I'm planning to go with my sisters but Liv is away on holiday this week. Fortunately, this video has provided me with some much needed Potter brilliance. Wizarding kittens? Yes please!

I'm currently hating;

Not fulfilling my tanning potential. Ok, 'hate' is probably a strong word, I'm just a bit miffed really. After two holidays in lovely hot countries, I was expecting to spend the rest of the Summer looking like something from a St Tropez ad. Sadly, this is just not the case - I am tanned, just not as tanned as I could be. I think it may be because I've not actually been abroad for the past six years and my skin had just forgotten how to tan. It was like "what the HELL is this?!" - it got to a certain level of brownness and then refused to go any darker. It could also be that I should have used a lower SPF - I used SPF 20 both times, but I think I could have gotten away with 15 in Lisbon - maybe that's where I went wrong? Either way, while it's nice to have a bit of natural colour for a change, I'm feeling drawn to the bottle of St Moritz currently at the back of my cupboard...

Ok, normally now I'd link to some blogs I've been enjoying lately, but to be honest I've been mainly reading all my usual faves and not come across any new ones - if you have any suggestions of new or lesser known blogs that I should check out, please let me know! I'm planning to do a favourite blogs post at some point soon.

So that's this month's update over and done with - hope you're all well and enjoying graduations/holidays/other exciting things that tend to happen around this time of year. Peace out, eight town.

A girl who turned into a swan

Unless you've been hiding in some kind of underground bunker for the past couple of months, you've probably, by now, heard some talk of the film Black Swan. Every blog post, Tweet and Facebook update that I've seen lately, seems to mention something along the lines of "went to see Black Swan yesterday, it was amazing!" which is fair, because it is seriously bloody good; I thoroughly recommend it.

[Images from imdb.com]

Ballet is one of those things I really wish I'd done when I was younger - it's so amazing to watch and I'm very jealous of people who are able to dance like that. And the costumes are so beautiful! I've always had a bit of a thing for tutus; anyone who's read some of my older posts may remember this one about my favourite photograph of all time, Les Pointes, by Isabel Munoz. There's just something about the movement of all those layers of tulle that is so magical and lovely.

I was particularly excited to discover that Kate and Laura Mulleavy, aka the designers behind the label Rodarte, designed and made all of the ballet costumes in the film. You can't really tell from the two images above, but the costumes are insanely detailed and covered in hundreds of feathers. I think it was a brilliant idea to have the Mulleavy sisters design the ballet costumes, as they're renowned for producing intricately detailed clothing which is often beautiful with a dark or gothic edge; perfect for Black Swan. I've had these images from their Fall 2008 collection saved on my laptop for about a year but never actually used them for anything - now seems to be the perfect time as there's definitely something ballet-like in the full skirts and tight, pulled back hairstyles;

I WANT those tights.

[images from style.com]

*SIGH* It's all so beautiful!

Back to the film - I'm not going to go into the plot or anything like that - there's plenty of reviews out there on t'Interwebs (especially here!) and like I've already said, it seems most people have seen it by now or are planning on going. All I'm going to say is, it's absolutely stunning and the performances are incredible (Natalie Portman is surely a shoe-in for the Oscar). However, if you haven't seen it yet, and you're as wimpy as me, be prepared to be a bit freaked out in parts because there are some seriously dark, gruesome moments!*

*To be fair, I really am a MASSIVE wimp - I'm too scared to watch 127 Hours, even though I love James Franco, because I don't want to sit through the arm cutting off scene - so maybe the stuff in Black Swan isn't actually that bad. Have you seen it? What did you think?

Weird and wonderful

I'm loving these images of Helena Bonham Carter from last week's issue of The Times Magazine, I think she's absolutely beautiful. I know HBC is one of those people who always appears on 'worst dressed' lists, but I get the impression that she really doesn't give a monkey's (hahaha 'monkeys' - coz she was in Planet of the Apes!. Get it? Hahahaha!) about that sort of thing; she marches to the beat of her own drum and that makes her very cool in my book.

What a fittie

Speaking of Helena, I finally went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last weekend. I can't believe it's taken me so long to go, as I'm a MA-HOO-SIVE HP geek fan, but it was just one of those things I didn't get around to doing. I really enjoyed it; out of all the films I'd say it's probably the one that stays most faithful to the book, although, that's to be expected really as they've done it in two parts which means they couldn't really get away with missing stuff out. Obviously there's a few bits that are changed (I HATE how Bill Weasley isn't introduced until the seventh film. Ridiculous), but they do manage to keep in most of the really important stuff.

HBC is back to her usual psychotic self as Bellatrix LeStrange. She really was just the perfect choice to play that character; she's exactly how I'd imagine her to look, plus she's got the whole evil and unhinged thing down to a T.

Yes, ok, she's a psycho. But look at her hair! She's a curly girl after my own heart!

I decided to re-read the final two books before I saw the film and they've completely re-awakened my love for the whole series. They're just so brilliant. Anyone who's only seen the films but not read the books, please, I urge you, just bloody well sit down and read them. The films are good, but they miss out so much vital information (and also add some really random stuff). The books are amazing and JK Rowling's brain is just magical. Seriously, just read them. Please? PLEASE! Once you've read them, you will thank me, I promise ;)

Another Helena film that's out at the moment is The King's Speech, which also stars Colin Firth. If you've not heard about it, it's about George VI, who suddenly became King after his brother abdicated the throne. He had serious difficulties with public speaking as he suffered from a stammer - kind of problematic when you're the King and are expected to be all speechy - so he hired a speech therapist to help him out. Had I not known anything about this film and just read the description, I probably wouldn't be that fussed about seeing it, however, I've already seen so many good reviews of it and there's been so much hype about Oscar nominations etc that I'm dying to see it.

What do you reckon? Does it sound like your cup of tea? And what do you think of Helena? And Harry Potter? Tell me things! Go!

[first three images scanned from The Times Magazine, Harry Potter image from IMDb]

I don't believe you, you're not the truth

You know how sometimes, you'll watch a film you've not seen in ages and it suddenly hits you just how good it is? I did that this weekend with Pretty Woman; I've always loved it, but I think it's been such a long time since I last watched it that I'd forgotten how wonderful it is.

Ok, yes, Pretty Woman is hardly a life-changing movie, in fact it's schmaltzy and a bit silly and the way it glosses over the seedy world of prostitution is actually kind of horrible (never before has the world's oldest profession been made to look so appealing - "come and be a hooker; you'll have all kinds of fun and probably end up being whisked away by a handsome millionaire who'll take you shopping and give you diamonds and stuff. Oh, just ignore that dead body they're pulling out of a bin... well yes... she was a prostitute too but umm... So how's your knowledge of cars?") but still, it's one of those ultimate chick-flick types that you just can't help but watch and enjoy. I think this is thanks, in large part, to Julia Roberts, who is impossibly lovely throughout. Don't get me wrong, Richard Gere is alright, but it's all about Julia really, isn't it? Also, I've just found out that she was only 22 in Pretty Woman, which seems mental to me and makes me feel old, because I'm 23 and, last time I checked, I hadn't starred in an iconic rom-com. FML.

Believe it or not, it's actually twenty years since Pretty Woman first came out (to be honest, it's not that difficult to believe - check out Julia's lovely big hair and massive eyebrows) and in honour of its 20th Anniversary, Elle.com interviewed the costume designer, Marilyn Vance. Did you know that, unlike today, where costume designers in movies often do more of a stylist job, sourcing various different clothes and then putting them together, (eg Sex and the City - the costumes are usually a mix of designer and vintage clothes that Patricia Field has specially selected and styled up to reflect each character's personal tastes) Marilyn Vance and her team actually designed and made the majority of the costumes in Pretty Woman?! Read the full interview here, it's really interesting.

Vivian: You work on commission, right?

Shop Assistant: Er... yes.

Vivian: Big mistake. Huge. I have to go shopping now.

SO GOOD! I hate snooty sales people. When sales assistants have their staff training, I think this scene should be played, along with this voice over -

"This is what happens if you're rude to people - Julia Roberts comes in and embarasses you. True story."

For me, possibly the most memorable costume from the whole film is THE RED DRESS. It's just amazing, honestly, I love it. Sexy but elegant, structured but soft and drapey (I know drapey isn't really a word, but I'm tired and it's the best I can do right now, OK?!), the colour, the shape, the little sleeves, argh it's perfection! I think it's probably my favourite ever dress from a movie.

When my Mum was younger, she'd quite often get a dress professionally made if she was going to a fancy event, and she once even had the pink dress that Madonna wears in the Material Girl video (which of course, is actually the Marilyn Monroe dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) made for her, but in black. Now, I never really have any super fancy events to go to, and even on the rare occasion that I do, I'll just buy a dress from a shop, because, it would never even occur to me to come up with my own design when there's already countless dresses just waiting for me to buy them in French Connection etc. But, maybe when I'm a proper grown up, and I've got somewhere seriously fancy to go; say if I was going to meet the Obamas or something, I would think about getting a dress made, and if I did, I would want it to be like the red Pretty Woman dress. It's my dream dress. In the interview with Elle, Marilyn Vance says that, initially, the dress was going to be black, but she managed to convince the studio to go with red. Imagine if it had been black! It still would have been lovely, but just not as special somehow. Well done Marilyn, you're very, very clever.

The perfect dress.

Beautiful, beautiful Julia. Look at that face.

What's your favourite costume from Pretty Woman? And are there any other films that you love with fabulous costumes?

[images - IMDb, hotflick.net and screen grabs from my DVD]

click click

It's a bit pointless me posting this now, because Halloween was a week ago, but I really just wanted to share these pics of Anjelica Huston as Morticia in the Addams Family, because she, or at least her makeup, was my inspiration this year.

Gothic fabulousness to the max. I love her cheekbones.

Sadly, I didn't really end up doing anything for Halloween; I was a bit rubbish last week and just couldn't be bothered moving! Seriously, two days for the weekend isn't enough - five days at work really take it out of me... (or I'm just very lazy...)

I did have a bit of a makeup practice the night before Halloween, because I was undecided about whether I was going to go to a party or not, so figured I should have a costume on standby just in case. Anyway, using the photos above as inspiration, I created my version of Morticia Addams;

Notice how I managed to incorporate the white face powder from last year? I bloody love that stuff. Sorry for the slightly moody face in the first photo, but this was the best of a bad bunch; I was trying to get that Morticia sneer, but I ended up looking like an idiot...

Although I didn't end up getting all fancy dressed up for Halloween, I am going to get the chance to make up for it as two of my most wonderful friends have just announced that they're having a joint birthday party in a couple of weeks in London and the theme is Rumble in the Jungle! Which means everyone has to come as some kind of jungle animal! Obviously there's a lot of possibilities for crazy costumes and I spent a couple of days changing my mind about what to go as, but I've now settled on an animal; I just need to work out how I'm going to do it. Hair and makeup is going to play a big part though...

Did everyone have a good weekend? And more importantly, did you see X Factor?! I can't believe we were so close to getting Katie out and the judges saved her again! I put this on Twitter too, but seriously, if a singer forgot their lyrics and then sat down on the stage and had a little temper tantrum, people would be calling them an unprofessional idiot. Katie does it and Simon says it makes her an 'interesting' performer?! WTF?!

Meow

Ever since I watched How To Marry A Millionaire ages ago, I've been thinking that "cat eye" glasses are quite cool.

Fortunately for me, it looks as though feline frames (yes, I'm a dork, but alliteration is good for the soul!) are set to be a bit of a trend this season; the Prada Fall 2010 collection featured a comical take on cat eyes, with brightly coloured eyebrows drawn across the top of the frames.

They were also featured in the Nina Ricci Fall collection, although as sunglasses rather than normal glasses;

images from style.com

I'm thinking that, since "Buddy Holly/geek" style glasses have already been kind of a big thing over the past couple of years, it's only a matter of time before other types of quirky glasses, such as cat eyes, become the norm.

They remind me of Marty from Grease, because she wears a sparkly pair near the beginning of the film and asks Rizzo "don't you think they make me look smarter?" before a rhinestone falls off them and into her plate of macaroni, bless her.

[These are some cheeky screen grabs I got from my Grease DVD (it's really tricky getting a good screen grab you know!). Unfortunately, I was focusing so much on Marty and her glasses, I didn't notice that Rizzo looks like she's having a stroke in the second shot, until I'd already saved it, and by then I just couldn't be bothered going back and getting another one. Sorry Rizzo. Also, what is that guy doing in the background?!]

While I do think that a spangly pair of cat eyes could look quite cute, I worry that once you start adding extreme amounts of bling to these glasses, you're stepping into Dame Edna territory, and I'm not sure any of us want to go down that path, do we?

"Hello possums!"

Anyway, Australian transvestites aside, I did a quick search on t'Internet and found a variety of cat eye glasses on vintage sites and eBay, although most of the best ones were sunglasses and I'm really looking for the kind with plain lenses. However, they are quite cheap, so I suppose if you found a pair of sunglasses with a really good frame, you could just buy them and then replace the lens? Or just remove the lens altogether? There's definitely options here, people! I did also stumble across a few variations on ASOS; the first pair below are definitely my favourites.

Solid Black Cat Eye Geeky Specs, £10 ASOS

Feline Crystal, $20 Giant Vintage

Cat Eye Glasses With Rhinestones, $7.99 Girl Props

I do actually wear glasses as I'm quite shortsighted, and it's been a while since I've had my eyes tested, so I probably need to buy a new pair. That being said, I'm not sure I could seriously wear a pair of cat eyes for work, (I can just imagine the sort of looks I'd get... sadly the people in my office just aren't down with the kids...) so I'll probably get a cheap pair (like the ASOS ones above) and then invest in a more 'serious' pair for when I need to be a sensible grown up type (blergh!). What do you think? Would you wear them? And will I look mad if I get a pair?!

If you never do anything, you never become anyone

I don't know if anyone else ever does this, but sometimes, I'll buy a film on DVD even though I've not seen it, simply because something tells me that I'll like it. Most of the time this works out for the best, and I'm happy to add the DVD to my worryingly large collection, but occasionally I'm left with a DVD that I'll never, ever watch again. (Mulholland Drive anyone? WTF?!) Fortunately, yesterday, when I decided to buy An Education on a whim, (it's currently £8 in HMV) my gut feeling that this would be my kind of film, was spot on. I think a sign of a good film is one that stays with you for a while after you've watched it; sometimes, I watch a film and forget it as soon as it's finished, but after watching An Education last night, I just couldn't stop thinking about it and even this morning when I woke up, it popped into my head again.

Carey Mulligan as Jenny

In my mind, everything about An Education is perfect; the casting, the individual performances (especially Carey Mulligan, my goodness, that girl is TALENTED!) the cinematography, the actual story - it all just works so well. I'm not sure you can say a film is one of your favourites after only seeing it once, but I'm very tempted. It's based on Lynn Barber's memoir, also entitled An Education, and I loved the film so much that I bought the book on Amazon last night. I think a film like this is even more touching when you know it's actually based on a true story. Have you seen An Education? What did you think? I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't, it's just lovely and brilliant and funny and sad.

Dominic Cooper as Danny and Peter Sarsgaard (aka Mr Maggie Gyllenhaal!) as David

Of course, apart from the fact that the film itself is fantastic, one of the most striking things about it (aside from Dominic Cooper looking like a total dish. And I never use the word "dish".) is the visuals; the setting and costumes are fantastic and fully capture the era of the early 60s. As a huge fan of big-haired glamour and super girlie dresses, I fell a bit in love with Rosamund Pike's character, Helen. Pike must have had A LOT of fun playing that part, as Helen spends the entire film looking beautifully groomed, wearing incredible clothes and coming out with brilliantly (unintentionally) funny one liners.

Helen: "Someone told me that in about 50 years, no one will speak Latin, probably.

Not even Latin people."

It's a bloody good job that one of the big trends for this season is 'ladylike', (which I'll discuss at a later date) as this film has left me with an overwhelming urge to coiff my hair into a complex up-do, put on my prettiest dress and speak in a clipped RP accent. It's also left me with an overwhelming urge to go to Paris, but funds being as they are at the moment, I'll have to make do with sitting in my room with a baguette and my mini Eiffel Tower statue. Alors, c'est tragique, n'est pas?

[ images from the IMDb]

Meyer, Meyer, Meyer

So, remember how I said that even though I wasn't particularly fussed on Edward Cullen and his nauseous little face, I was still going to give the Twilight books a go, because I want to know what all the fuss is about? Well I'm currently reading the first book and I have to say it is quite readable. It hasn't changed my life or anything, but it definitely hasn't been a chore to read. I still think it's massively overrated though. Maybe it's because I'm 22, not 15, or maybe it's because I'm massively cynical about love and romance in general, but I do think that Edward and Bella's relationship, right from the get-go is completely ridiculous and weird. And Bella is really f***ing annoying. I can't see how any teenage girls could relate to her, she's a nob. But yeah, I'm enjoying it...

Anyway, I was reading it on the bus the other day, and I got to the part where Edward and Bella go on a little trip to the woods (as you do) and she describes what he's wearing, and I suddenly read a sentence that made me pause and question Stephenie Meyer as a credible human living in the 21st century;

"His white shirt was sleeveless, and he wore it unbuttoned, so that the smooth white skin of his throat flowed uninterrupted over the marble contours of his chest,"

Does anyone else see the problem here? No seventeen year old boy, regardless of whether or not he happens to be a vampire, would go gallavanting around in an unbuttoned sleeveless shirt. I can't even imagine what that would look like, because nobody would EVER wear it. I'm not even talking about fashion here - they live in a small town, there probably isn't much in the way of reputable fashion stores, that's fine, I accept that. But unless the only store in a one hundred mile radius is the Jean Paul Gaultier Sailor Suit Cast Offs Store, there is no excuse for Edward wearing that shirt. No excuse. Stephenie Meyer, I don't know what kind of weird-ass, sartorially challenged world you're dreaming up, but you need to sort it out. Sure, the whole Twilight 'world' is full of mythical creatures (vampires, werewolves, Dakota Fanning) so obviously, we don't have to see it as completely realistic, but Steph, please at least try and be credible with the stuff that you actually can be credible with.

I feel like Carrie in that episode of SATC where Burger writes about the woman wearing a scrunchie. But at least some people actually own scrunchies.

No. Just no.

I'm aware that the statement I'm about to make may well be met with muchos disagreement and general disdain, but then, what's the point in having a blog if you can't set yourself up for a bit of abuse?

I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I'm just going to come right out and say it... deep breath...

I liked Sex and the City 2 (for the most part)

Ok kids, now play nice.

After reading reviews and talking to other people who've seen the movie, the general consensus seems to be that the majority of people thought it was too long, had very little in the way of actual storyline and, generally, they just hated it.

Well... yes, it was too long. I don't think anyone can deny that this movie is long and really doesn't need to be. Maybe they forgot to edit it, maybe they just really wanted to squeeze in a few more puns and a few more pairs of shoes, who knows, but it was VERY long. To be honest though, I feel that any movie that surpasses the two hour mark is too long. I've actually sat through SATC 2 twice now, (once in Liverpool, once in London) maybe this makes me crazy, but despite the numb-bum syndrome we all get in those horrible cinema seats, I've enjoyed it both times and was quite happy to go the second time, despite the fact I knew it was super-long.

With regards to the storyline, let's be honest here, it's the sequel to a movie-adaptation of a TV show that focuses solely on sex and fashion - how much storyline could there really be? The first movie pretty much exhausted all the standard 'dramatic' storylines that were relevant to the show- infidelity, pregnancy, marriage, dying your hair brown - what more could they have done? It was a choice between sending them off on holiday or going in a completely different direction, setting the movie in a women's prison and having the storyline be a violent-but-moving prison drama; a cross between Bridget Jones 2 and The Green Mile (Sex and the City 2: Behind Bars)... actually... that sounds quite good...

Anyway, regardless of length and storyline (or lack of...), I still enjoyed the film. I didn't LOVE it; I'm not going to go around quoting it, it hasn't changed my life, but then, I wasn't expecting it to. Sex and the City 2 was hardly going to be the next Boys Don't Cry, was it? It had its flaws, but it made me laugh, the styling was (mostly) marvellous and that Danish guy was seriously hot. Maybe this makes me sound like a shallow, soulless monstrosity, but sometimes, after a long week at work, I don't want to watch some kind of emotionally-charged drama that leaves me feeling drained and exhausted at the end, I want to watch something light and silly. I make no apologies for that. Films don't always have to be enriching or intelligent; they're just films. If you really want to do something intelligent, read a book; you'll get a lot more out of it.
Anyway, rant over. Let's get to the good stuff.

Bits I loved (there may be spoilers)

Very brief 80s flashback. Brilliant. It was worth watching for Miranda's haircut alone. I don't know why, but I love this image of Charlotte walking down the street brushing her hair.

The Brady-Hobbes clan. Gotta love them. Yes, Miranda quits her job at the beginning of the movie, which is a bit unexpected and random, but she does find another one by the end, with what seems to be some kind of roof-top hippie law firm. Ah, why not?

AIDAN! There will always be a place in my heart for lovely tall Aidan. Look at him, working that man-bag. So manly.

KARAOKE! I'll be honest, I'd never heard the song before, but it was still wonderful. Favourite bit possibly in the whole film, Samantha drunkenly singing on her own at the end "I am a woma-a-an, I'm at that ta-a-able!"

Every scene with baby Rose. Not because she's cute, just because her facial expressions were hilarious. Did you ever see a more stressed-out looking baby in your life? Either she has a deadly cupcake allergy or it's just suddenly dawned on her that Charlotte is going to be dressing her and Lily in matching outfits until they're both well into their teens.

LIZA-MI-FRIKKIN-NELLI! I don't need to say anything else.

Other bits I loved;

• "Abdul. Like Paula"
• Samantha dancing to Single Ladies during Liza's bit.
• The super fancy plane - how amazing were those cubicle things?!
• Brief, unnecessary shot of Jason Lewis shirtless - no reason for it, but I'm not complaining :)
• Alice Eve's ridiculously crap Irish accent. I don't know if it was meant to be crap, or it just was crap, but either way, HILARIOUS! (I don't think we really need to talk about her boobs, but seriously, did you ever see anything like them? Are they real?!)

Bits I didn't love

Pretty much everyone's outfit in this scene. Especially Charlotte's. Why, oh why did they put her in those horrendous shiny red legging things!? Actually though, they all look completely ridiculous here. Samantha is wearing some kind of Pharoah headdress. Apparently that's necessary in the desert...

Other bits I didn't love;

• the fact that Charlotte seems to have become some kind of bizarre, comedy character who's always getting into hilarious scrapes. She poos herself in the first movie and seems to spend the second film falling over and generally being embarassing. What's going on there?
• The whole scene in the marketplace which starts with Samantha going completely mental, thrusting at holy men and screeching "YES, CONDOMS! I HAVE SEX!" like some kind of furious, sweaty sex-banshee and ends with all four of the women disguising themselves in burqas to escape the angered holy men. It was like some kind of weird scene from a Carry On movie, or a Benny Hill sketch. A lot of people have said that this scene in particular was really offensive, and I agree that it is to some extent, but more than anything I think it just makes Carrie et al look really bloody stupid.

So there you have it; my thoughts on SATC 2 - silly in parts but still enjoyable and lots of fun - where's the harm in that? I'd love to know what you guys thought of it - a bit of a laugh or a load of rubbish? Tell me!

images from imdb.com