Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
3 Lloyds - Family-Friendly for the Rating of PG-13
This week’s new film releases couldn’t wait until Friday to challenge The Dark Knight’s record-breaking run at the box office. By the way, the numbers continue to climb for the Caped Crusader. As of Monday, the Batman Begins sequel had taken in $400.04 million dollars in domestic sales in just 18 days. That number put it past the previous record holder, Shrek 2, which broke the $400 million dollar mark on the 43rd day of its release. The Dark Knight is now ranked eighth on the list of all-time box office hits. But, given the numbers, it will surely move into the seventh spot soon. When it does, it will become Hollywood’s top-grossing comic book hero movie when it passes the $403.7 million dollar mark earned by the original Spider-Man.
With big numbers like that, just what does Warner Bros. Studios plan to do for a follow up? The answer — Another sequel which opens on the big screen today.
This time around it’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. America Ferrera, Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn all return for this follow-up to the 2005 movie based on the young adult novels. The four friends have completed their freshman year of college and have separate plans for the summer. Once again they discover the pants that are supposed to bring them closer together, may actually push them further apart from one another.
I’ll have a fuller review of this sequel on Friday, but for now lets just say this movie has a lot of good things going for it. While it’s definitely a chick-flick, I also believe this follow-up flick about Traveling Pants is slightly stronger than the first one. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 seems to hold together better than the first one. The story-lines are somewhat more connected, which means it doesn’t feel as disconnected as the first movie did at times.
Once again we discover a movie with many lessons about growing up, and discovering what’s really important in life. While The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants dealt with the idea that life does not revolve around an individual. In Traveling Pants 2 the girls are trying to discover how to be individuals, while at the same time, remain friends and remain true to one another. The most impressive aspect of this movie revolves around the fact that pretty much all of the actresses and actors involved in the first movie, are back for this sequel. As a matter of fact, many of the minor people involved in the first flick, are back for this sequel.
But most importantly, and this is where we really applaud the filmmakers, the movie is rated properly for the content. The first installment of the Traveling Pants carried a PG rating. We called that one family-friendly. With the success of the first movie, sometimes filmmakers miss the rating for a sequel, by maintaining the same classification as the first movie. However, the girls have grown up, and since they’re growing up, the rating needs to be upgraded as well. I’m so glad The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 carries a PG-13 rating. There’s nothing horrendously bad in this movie, but it does deal with slightly more mature material than the first Traveling Pants movie with the girls just coming out of high school. Here they’ve completed their first year of college. As a result, the content of the movie deals with older situations. It needed a rating upgrade, and again, we applaud the filmmakers with the PG-13 rating.
All in all, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a movie worth seeing. While it’s not super-strong, it does maintain the look and feel of the first installment. While I’ve also said this is a chick-flick, there are some good lessons here for guys too. If you’re looking for something different to see this weekend, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a good choice, and it’s even family-friendly for the rating.
Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus
