My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)

Made in 2002, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding's" box office was around $368 Million. It was a cheerful film and received mostly positive reviews. Purely based on this success, they wanted to suck the film dry by making a sitcom based on the same idea which failed after seven episodes, because there was nothing else left to tell. Here in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" there are two different stories which are harmonized with the lives of the family after 14 years. If you have seen the original film, you should remember that Ian (John Corbett) and Toula (Nia Vardalos) had a daughter. One side of the story focuses on her and her teenager problems and the other side focuses on the marriage of Toula's mother and father. Toula's father finds out that their marriage paper has never been signed. When Toula's mother learns about this, she demands to get married. After fifty years of being together, they get married as loud as Toula's marriage, like the title suggests. So, the story bounces back and forth between these two main stories and the relation between Ian and Toula. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" is still a warm-hearted story with all its sincerity but this is pretty much it. The film doesn't have any purpose anymore. Based on this idea, you can make as many films as possible and, eventually, people will stop seeing them. That being said, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2's" box office dropped drastically from $368 Million to $88.9 Million. People got the idea. They are a big family, they are funny and different and they have strong bonds but that's pretty much it. There is nothing else this family can give to the audience. Each character is easily predictable, which suggests the weakness of the screenplay. When you look carefully, the film has no aim anymore. They are planning a wedding and a lot of funny things are happening along the way. Those funny things are just the different versions of the same jokes from the original film.Cultural differences between Americans and Greeks are more obvious in this one. The film carries the message of the beauty of living together no matter how different we are. In "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2," everyone seems to be leading the film. The pressure over Toula is lifted but she is still struggling to keep everything together. This is time consuming and leads her to neglect her own family. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" focuses also on the marriage of Ian and Toula. The film has a lot of directions and the director Kirk Jones manages to keep them all together, but still he can't provide something new or different to the audience, which makes it an average film. It would be perfectly fine if they wouldn't have made the 2nd film. Cultural diversity was the strongest point of the first film. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" depends purely on this and fails to bring something on the table. The customs and behaviors are just repeating themselves. This is still tolerable because they are funny, but, once again, they are not new. This is the reason why I wrote above that no one would have missed a 2nd film based on the same idea. Even the locations are the same.Regarding the performances there is nothing new. Like in the first film I like Andrea Martin's acting performance. Andrea Martin's character, Aunt Voula, is a problem solver. She is a person everyone can depend on and one of the most important women in the family. It is an easy role to play but hard to make it perfect. Andrea Martin manages to make it perfect from the way she walks to the way she talks. If this film needs to be saved, she is there to do it. Other than her, I haven't seen a worth mentioning performance because, just like the 1st film, this one is not a character-based film either. This time I have enjoyed the soundtracks. Especially the Greek oriented ones. In most of the scenes I had the feeling that I am watching a European film.Once again, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" doesn't bring anything new on the table. Watching it is not a waste of time but don't have higher expectations. If you loved the characters and the story in the 1st film then watch this one to see how they are doing after 14 years. Written by Nia Vardalos and produced by Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" is a film of happy thoughts and a strong traditional family.

Nia Vardalos captures the unhappiness of Toula who is 30, single ,works unhappily at the family restaurant with no future prospects & dresses to reflect her quiet despair , drowning in the noise of her large , loud , hirsute , intrusive , brash , working-class Greek immigrant family in Chicago, crushed by her dramatic , sweet , manipulative , over- emotional Greek father , who believes that women shouldn't be educated , but must be Greek virgins who marry nice Greek boys & become matriarchs who rule the family kitchens.Toula's father is subverted by her mother & aunt who scheme together , resulting in a new Toula- a woman who takes charge , gets an education , a new job, new friends , confidence & catches the eye of her future husband, played by John Corbett, an easy going high school teacher who adores her & isn't Greek ( to Toula's fathers dissapointment ) but is an upper middle class wasp, with conservative , refined , quiet country-club , lawyer parents. The latter half of the film is about a mildly hilarious clash between the Greek working class and the upper crust prim , polite wasps , with Toula cringing all the way to the altar.

Toula (Nia Vardalos) is still smothered by her large Greek family in Chicago. She has somehow ended up working back at the diner. Her husband Ian (John Corbett) is the principal at the school. Their daughter Paris is embarrassed and overwhelmed by her noisy family. She is considering moving away for college. Toula's father insists on finding a connection to Alexander the Great. In the process, he discovers his marriage certificate is missing the priest's signature.The humor of the original has a nice charm. Nia has pushed the writing in this movie more towards TV sitcom. The original charm has become cheesy. The premise to make another wedding is artificial at best. The daughter story should be the center this time but Nia insists on making her character the lead. She simply doesn't have the romantic drama. There is an easier way to make a fun comedy out of this franchise but this is not the way.

The first movie had culture clash, great comedy, and most importantly a major transformation of the lead character. The sequel is also funny and full of awkward too-close family moments, but lacks a major transformation (although Vardalos does looks quite fetching in the restaurant date scene). I would have done a rewrite. Have the mother insist on getting remarried in Greece (the family being more successful and wealthier to afford this). While there in the old country, the daughter (Paris) would appreciate Greek history and culture and see close Greek family ties as being "normal" and maybe even ogling a few cute Greek boys. She would then decide forego NYU and instead attend school in Chigago close to home, thus growing to accept the love of her family in a tear-jerking moment of reciprocated love. That would have been a more transformative and much happier ending to this sequel.