Mariage à la grecque 2

You know what you're going to get with this movie - and it delivers. It's a good sequel. The downsides are that the plot is pretty thin and unfortunately 50% of the jokes are in the trailer. But it's a feel good movie and it's fun to see everyone from the original cast, 14 years later, including Ian Miller's parents. Funniest parts were when Gus's young grandsons ape him in explaining how the root of every word you can think of actually comes from the Greek.

Nice cameos from Rita Wilson (wife of Tom Hanks and the reason why the first movie got made), bundt cakes, Toula's big glasses and Windex. Lots of "in" jokes for those of us who loved the first movie and thought it was a refreshing change from typical Hollywood fare. Well done, Nia Vardalos. And by the way, she looks stunning in the red lace mini dress at the end of the movie.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's been 14 years since the Portokolas family took over movie theatres, the box office, and casual conversation in most every social setting. I'll readily admit that, despite my leanings toward more serious film fare, I was a huge fan of the 2002 surprise mega-hit. The movie was refreshing and observational, with commentary on proud cultures and helicopter parenting – but mostly it was funny. Bundt cakes and Windex will forever be a part of movie lore … as this sequel reminds us.

Given the Hollywood proliferation of sequels, re-makes and re-imaginings, the only thing surprising here is that it took so long for Wedding number 2. And yes, that is the only surprise. Nia Vardalos obviously wrote this script as a love letter to the fans of the original. It fits like a warm blanket – comfortable and familiar. The setting, the characters and the jokes … all familiar … yet still pleasant and easy to watch.

With that title, we know we are in for another Greek wedding. However, Toula (Ms. Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett) have one daughter – 17 year old Paris (Elena Kampouris), and her big decision is whether to stay local for college or leave Chicago and the family for NYU. Since the wedding is not for the daughter, it falls to Toula's parents. It seems Gus (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan) have been living in sin for 50 years – all because the priest never signed the marriage certificate. Let the histrionics begin! Director Kirk Jones (Nanny McPhee, Waking Ned Devine) stays true to the spirit of the Vardalos script and legacy, and much of the movie plays like one big inside joke for fans of the original. Windex make an appearance in each of the three acts, and we get a shot of decorated Bundt cakes, some exaggerated make-up and hair styles, and a steady stream of family members who just can't help their propensity for being loud and up in everyone's business.

Most of the original cast returns. Andrea Martin is back as scene-stealer Aunt Voula, and Mama-Yiayia (Bess Meisler) gets her usual "pop-ups" plus a touching moment in the wedding spotlight. New faces include Alex Wolff (brother of Nat, son of Polly Draper) as Paris' prom date; and Rita Wilson (also a producer with her husband Tom Hanks) and John Stamos have a couple of scenes as a Greek couple; while Mark Margolis ("Breaking Bad", "Better Call Saul") appears as Gus' brother from the homeland.

Nostalgia and familiarity are the keys here, and there is no reason to be overly-critical of a movie that is so pleasant and light-hearted. "There you go!"

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" is probably the best sequel that could've been spawned from a largely forgotten but monstrously successful independent romantic comedy from twelve years ago. One could theoretically call it a "too little too late" sequel, something Hollywood has been good at churning out recently with sequels to "Barbershop," "Joe Dirt," and "Zoolander," but when a sequel is so similar in line with its predecessor after so many years and practically oozes the same kind of sentiment, one has to be a bit forgiving and credit it for what most sequels fail to capture.

Both sequels to "Joe Dirt" and "Zoolander" were flawed from the very concepts, and when it came time to try that concept again, over a decade later, it felt stale and desperately forced when it came to trying to modernize it for the times and the now-grown up audience. While "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" has obligatory scenes of poor Toula (Nia Vardalos) trying to teach her loving father Gus (Michael Constantine) how to work a computer, it nonetheless manages to effectively work as charming comedy of moments, even if its structure and narrative theme is about as basic as it can get.

The film reenters the lives of the characters we fondly recall from the first film, only now, well into their married lives and elder years. Toula and Ian (John Corbett) are having the typical kinds of struggles most semi-long/long-term married couples have emotionally and romantically, especially with their teenage daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) in the midst of deciding where to go to college. While she wants to go off to New York University, her parents want her to stay in Chicago and go to Northwestern University, but Paris has been constantly smothered by her borderline insufferable Greek family to the point where she wants none of it.

Meanwhile, Toula's parents Gus and Maria (Lainie Kazan) are getting well into their old age, especially Gus, who has had hip and memory problems for a while now. All is going well between him and his wife until Gus uncovers a much-repressed family secret that the priest never signed the certificate of marriage to make Gus and Maria an official union, meaning Gus and Maria aren't legally married, despite fifty years of togetherness. How this was never uncovered before, as if the two never had to file taxes or partake in any other legal activities, I'm not sure, but long story short, they're not married. Rather than doing the logical thing and just going down to the courthouse to make the marriage official, of course the family must complicate it, starting with Maria wanting not only a real proposal from Gus, but a full-blown, bank-breaking wedding. So we're back to square one, this time planning a wedding for the older couple, rather than the younger one.

The scene-stealer this time around, however, isn't so much Vardalos playing a role she can practically sleepwalk, but Aunt Voula, played by the lovely Andrea Martin. Not a hugely significant presence in the first film, it would appear that Vardalos decided to give some of the best quips and zingers to her character's aunt, whose loud presence and boisterous, if invasive, mannerisms often result in some strong belly-laughs. Also giving his all in a performance that he can probably perform at any given time of the day is Michael Constantine; despite his character, the actor can't hide his energy and Jack Lemmon-esque grouchiness when it comes time to really commit to being an enthusiastic presence. He winds up being the most commendable presence here.

The rest of the film is damn-near what you can imagine if you close your eyes and picture potential setups and events for the Portokalos family. Paris is a fascinating character, but unfortunately underwhelming because, fitting for her character and her situation, she keeps getting nudged out of the frame by her louder counterparts. It would've been nice to see a setup solely involving Paris and her decision of grappling with her parents, her heritage, and her decision of where to go to school. Instead, we get a pretty lukewarm plot involving her making impromptu prom plans with another boy (The Naked Brothers Band's Alex Wolff) after he is rejected by the prettiest girl in school. That's about as cliché as Greeks kissing each side of another person's face when they first see one another.

However, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" has some remarkably funny moments. A scene involving Gus stuck in a bathtub isn't played for the kind of bawdy and slapstick gimmicks you'd expect and a scene between all the female Portokalos members at a beauty salon is the epitome of what I wanted from this film all along: good conversation amongst people you can believe are family. Because of their general talent and the fact that they've done this before, the cast's chemistry is fun and the events of the film are lively and concise enough to assure it's never boring and always moving. It's the best sequel you probably could've made twelve years later, and if that's good enough for you, it's certainly good enough for a rainy day at the movies.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, the sequel to the 2002 highly successful hit comedy is finally here with the whole family returning for another wedding. Like most belated comedy sequels, i wasn't expecting a whole lot from this film, i expected it to play off what made the first film successful and be relatively average. And that is more or less what we have here, in some aspects it delivers fairly well and in others it really doesn't. One of the things i liked hearing going into this film was that the whole cast was returning and that it was being written by Nia Vardalos who also wrote the first one. It gave me some hope that it would have the same overall feeling, but it kinda didn't in the end.

Unlike the first film, it didn't feel like a 'Greek' movie for around half of it, it was more of a modern Romantic Comedy with some Greek comedy and set-pieces here and there. Structurally the films plot was kinda all over the joint. There were a lot of side- plots in this film and to be honest, there wasn't really a main plot in the film. It kinda jumps around between the romantic stories revolving around Nia, her parents, and her daughter. Neither one took control of the film and the focus kept swapping throughout. And when the film did depart from the Greek aspect and started heading in the Rom-Com direction they just organised a couple of Greek jokes to remind you that this is still a Greek themed film, and maybe that's where Nia Vardalos writing the film helped it but also kinda let it down. But what i really loved was just by watching this film you could tell that she loves this property, she loves the character Toula and she really didn't want it to fail, and i love when a film is written with so much passion.

Now, the comedic aspects of the film were definitely there and there were some very very funny moments. There wasn't really a steady flow of comedy throughout the film, it's sort of delivered in sections here and there. Pretty much, whenever it focused on the Greek aspects of the film there were plenty of jokes, most of the time. And after seeing this film, i gotta say, there are quite a few good laughs..... if you're Greek that is, but if you're not and you don't understand a lot about Greek culture, there really isn't much here for you. Being Greek is really what made a lot of the comedy in the film actually funny. And in terms of who was delivering the comedy, the supporting cast (the entire extended family) were the ones delivering ALL of the jokes, and i mean ALL of them. Unfortunately, Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, and the daughter Elena Kampouris didn't contribute to the humour like at all, not even once from memory. They tried, they definitely tried to have them be funny but it just didn't work at all.

But, one thing i have to give the film 100% credit for is what jokes they did provide. Like all of these comedic sequels it would have been incredibly easy to just re-use jokes from the first film and hope people laugh at them as much as they did in 2002. But this film didn't go with any obvious joke callbacks to the first film, which i loved and more comedy sequels should do. I thought for sure they were going to make Nick and Angelo have Ian say something wrong in Greek, and they didn't which was great. They went for new material so i admire what they did.

In the end, it isn't nearly as good as the original film, there was less of an authentic Greek feeling, and it kinda lost itself in the Romantic Comedy elements. In terms of the plot it was very unfocused jumping around a lot. But it does deliver on the comedy and there are plenty of laughs to take out of this film, mainly if you are Greek.

5/10

Weirdly found this film OK. The reviews aren't great so I thought I'll tell exactly what's in it. Multiple love stories at once all tied together with a family upset and something to do with passing knowledge on to different generations.

We have seen this format so many times and by now we should be getting bored. Surely? But no, look it wasn't the most amazing film. The cinematography was average so was the script and the plot. But it knows what it is. And more importantly it wasn't trying to be something it's not. So it's that feel good family love story. And it does make you feel good and it is surprisingly funny. The only one thing that annoyed me was that they used a certain character for comic purposes at nearly the end of every sequence. But apart from that it's all good.

If you like these types of film then you will love it. Even if this isn't your favorite genre but your feeling down then give it a try it's almost certain to cheer you up. And if you hate this genre then I don't even know why your reading this or on this page. You probably decided you were not seeing it when you saw the trailer.

Tom