Review: ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’

Travis:

Would you shout BullSh** if you were to read the following entertainment headline:

‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’ shocks as it comes in as close second to ‘The Dark Knight’ in audience anticipation, drawing fans in the hundreds to theaters…

Yeah, me too… Until I arrived at the screening  the other  night in Saint Louis about thirty minutes before it’s showtime, surprised to see a line out the front door and down to the corner of the theater building (that’s pretty far at this theater). It gets better… I walked in to grab my seat and, if I weren’t with press my ass would have been screwed! [Not that I was “looking forward” to see this film.] The house was packed! So, I save my seat and head out to the lobby for some refreshments when I overhear one of the staff doing their best to fend off upset teenage girls and irate middle-aged women, while explaining that the screening was full and they’d not be seeing the film. Keep in mind, this is maybe five minutes after I walked into the theater… the line I spoke of was still outside. I did NOT want to be that staff member.

Yep, I went and saw ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’ and there’s a little more to this story, but that’s not what you’re here for. You want to know whether it was any good. [sighs] OK, it was just OK. Not “completely” horrible, but not entirely enjoyable either. The film basically plays out like an average episode of sappy TV drama for young people, aka Dawson’s Creek, etc. Now, I know I am fixing to get busted by the fan, uh… fan-girls out there, especially since I never bothered to see the first ‘Sisterhood’ movie. Oh, shucks! Guess what, it could not have, in any way possibly made the sequel any better. The movie follows the four friends… Lena, Carmen, Bridget and Tibby … as they all are now in college (or equivalent) and must deal with living their own lives and not being together. They each go through their own struggles, heartbreaks, emotional disasters, romantic flings and life-changing events, ultimately winding up back together for the better due to the mystical, magical fascinating pair of creatively enhanced blue jeans that somehow fit each of the four girls perfectly… an amazing feat to defy all physics since only two of the girls have similar body types. Ah, details.

Honestly, I found myself scoffing, sighing, huffing and puffing and occasionally yawning throughout most of the one hour and 57 minute running time. Ouch! Aren’t chick flicks required by law to be no more than 90 minutes long? Maybe I’m thinking of something else. The movie did manage to steal a few laughs against my will, mostly as a result of bits of physical comedy. [I’d like those laughs back, please.] As for the acting, and I use that term loosely, only one person in the entire film caught my attention… America Ferrara (plays Carmen) who I knew I remembered from something, that something being a film called ‘Real Women Have Curves’. Otherwise, you can take the rest of the performances and recycle them into something useful, as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a funny bit of trivia… the actor who played Bridget’s father gave an absolutely dead, dry and amateur-at-best performance, coming across cold, empty and completely without any emotion, despite the fact that his few scenes were sort of heavy emotional material. Coincidentally, the actor’s name is Ernie Lively… “lively” he was not.

I am sure that droves of teen-aged fans are going to flock to this movie and love it to death and I’m SOOO sure I’m going to get hate mail, or even death threats, for blasting this movie. To quote Randall from ‘Clerks’ I say “I’m not even supposed to be here today,” but I was and this was my opinion of the film. If you really want to go see ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2’ then go for it, enjoy it if possible and then move on with your lives. Guys, I wouldn’t recommend seeing this one, unless its a make-or-break date deal. Also, I wouldn’t recommend defaulting on your deal to see this with your significant other in exchange for getting to go see ‘The Dark Knight’… it can be hazardous to your health. Besides, I have seen worse movies…

(2 out of 5 stars)

Ram Man:

When I arrived at the theater, I realized what I was in for with “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2”. The line was circling the building. This is a teenage girl’s version “Dark Knight”. Sisterhood 2 has all of the “fab” four returning: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively in their original roles of Tibby, Lena, Carmen and Bridget..the Sisterhood.Lena’s little sister Effe (Lucy Hales) and boyfriends Kostos (Michael Rady) and Leonardo (Brian McBrian) also make a comeback.

Sisterhood 2 picks up with the girls graduating and beginning to pursue their own lives away from New York and those magical pair of Denim jeans that made such a strong bond between them. Tibby (Tamblyn) is enrolled in film school in New York, still trying to figure out her life and her relationship with Leonardo. Lena, the jet setter, spend the film popping in between New York and Greece trying to get over lost love Kostos. Bridget decides to check out Archeology and signs up to spend the Summer in the Middle East at a dig but finds more than she was bargaining for …a Grandma she didn’t know she had. This leaves Carmen, who thought that it was status quo for the summer with the fabulous foursome joined at the hip until they return to college. Wrong. Carmen, who’s family is moving and growing (Mom is having a baby) takes off to Vermont Theater camp with a buddy from Yale and move from the shadows to the front of the stage in the storyu and in the film.

The girls suffer though some personal turmoil and soon begin to realize that not even their super elastic jeans can keep them together. Effie on a strike of vengeance at her sister and the denim fraternity steels the pants and ends up losing them. Lena, taking responsibility for Effie, goes to Greece to find the magical jeans. The rest of the sisterhood soon follows to widen the search and to assist in the rekindling of loves flame between Lena and Kostos. The group then learns that the magic was inside each one of them and not this pair of jeans that kept them together through the years.

This film is a follow-up to the original. To me it the story seemed a little more choppy than the first. I was also amazed at the financial resources of these college students that can jet to Greece at the drop of a dime to look for lost pants. You do need to see the original or have read the books to know who is who and have a clue to what is going on. Ferrara and Tamblyn give good performances in the sequel. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a fine family film and will have young girls all over the country rejoicing once they have seen it. Myself give me a good pair of sweats over magical jeans any day.

(2.5 stars out of 5)

[rating: 2.25/5]