Review of 2 Days in New York (2012) by Tanvir M — 24 Aug 2013

I enjoyed "2 Days In Paris" way more than this. Like the first movie it is a clash of cultures film and the humor is mostly derived from this. But the real grating is mostly on Mingus' part, even though the characters are, for lack of a better term, on his "turf". They're not uncomfortable. He is. In fact, Marion's family is incredibly comfortable in their own skin, bringing their French culture to America and not thinking anything of the clashes or consequences. They are charmingly confident, if a bit embarrassing because of that fact.

Sadly, in this sequel that had so much potential, I feel like I didn't laugh as much. I also didn't see Mingus as nearly as charismatic or funny as Jack was. You sympathized with Jack and could understand why he was reacting to things the way he was reacting to them, as his personality had already been developed earlier in the film (i.e., he was very neurotic and a hypochondriac in a country where he didn't speak the language and wasn't used to the culture.) I didn't really know/see where Mingus was coming from as I didn't have a good sense of who he was. Yeah he was radio host but that's all I really got from him. He was just kind of there to piss and moan about her families' eccentricities but he wasn't as amusing when he did it. Yeah Marion is a little wild and crazy, and her family just as so, but he's boring and whiny. I thought Chris Rock would be extremely funny here but he wasn't.

"2 Days In Paris" also showed the city more, with the characters wandering around the streets/getting lost and whatnot. "2 Days In New York" doesn't really do this, surprisingly. Many scenes are within Mingus and Marion's apartment, or just indoors in the general and not exploring the fascinating bits of NYC. Unfortunate. So yeah, I was mostly disappointed with this movie.