MOVIE REVIEW: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

The follow-up, sequel, or milking the cow to death film from the original 2002 movie.  This time the wedding in question should have been done about 50 years ago.

Toula, Nia Vardalos, is trying to cope with her parents getting older and needing her attention more, and her Daughter, now 17, not needing her at all.  The tightly knit family are all back and are all just as in your face as they were 14 years ago.

14 years ago when the original came out I have to admit I developed a soft spot for My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Vardalos was a breath of fresh air as the romantic lead.  She didn’t look like the A-typical female lead of a romantic comedy, and the film had more heart than a lot of the rom coms that we had at that time.  Vardalos went on to star in the massively under rated film Connie and Carla which I suggest you go rent or buy that film rather than go see this.  I don’t say that out of malice or to be mean for the sake of being mean.  I say that because Connie and Carla is a far superior movie to this and more worthy of your time and cash.

We find out that Toula’s parents have never completed their wedding paper work and that officially they are not married.  For 50 years they have been living in sin.  Added to this pressure Toula’s 17-year-old daughter is about to leave for college and is over her overwhelming family.  Grandfather wants the 17-year-old to find a Greek Boyfriend and Toula just wants to be needed again by her daughter.

After this many years and a failed sitcom based on the first movie you just want to know why come back and not bring the 100% that the original deserved.  The first film isn’t amazingly awesome, just good enough that it raised itself above the bar that the films of the time set.  But if you are going to come back after all this time and give us a half-hearted attempt then I want to know why bother?  We didn’t miss the characters enough that we needed an update.  We could write that movie ourselves.  If you are going to come back to the ring after such an absence, then come back bigger, with more fight in your belly.  This is a TV movie that is masking itself as a big screen adventure that you have to leave the house to see.  If this had come back as a Netflix or Amazon or whatever the hell else other way of getting a film these days then I wouldn’t have watched it, but it’s coming onto our silver screens and in Dublin that is not a cheap time out.

First of all we get the same performances as before, not a bad thing, but the same situations and nothing is learned through the life they have lived in the time since the last movie.  They manage to remove most of the charm with only a few moments that bring the true nature of the original back to your mind.  The worst thing that can happen to me during a film is that I start wondering what might have been.  The development of the characters is lazy and almost an afterthought.

When I heard that this film was opening up against Batman Versus Superman: Dawn of Justice I thought that it was going to be awesome, I know a lot of people who have no interest in the Man of Steel going toe to toe with the Dark Knight.  Sadly lazy writing and forcing a story just to drag back fans of the original to wring a few more dollars out of them is not going to work, at least not for me.  As a fan of DC comics I wanted a respite from the caped crusaders and a light comedy that I could give a hearty laugh to.  I’m just going to watch Connie and Carla after each screening of Bats and Supes first time on-screen together.

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Garth Cremona (RIP)

Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com

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