My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 Review

Director: Kirk Jones

Starring: Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin, Elena Kampouris

The Overview

After discovering their marriage certificate wasn’t signed, Gus (Constantine) and Maria (Kazan) have a big fat Greek wedding of their own. Meanwhile Toula (Vardalos) and Ian (Corbett) are struggling to cope with the fact their angsty teenage daughter Paris (Kampouris), might want to move away. 

The Good

This sequel to the 2002 surprise hit is arriving a huge 14 years after the original! I can’t say I’ve been on tenterhooks for 14 years waiting for this film to come about, but hey it’s a nice idea, and with the full cast returning, I hoped it would have that lovely, funny, wackiness that the original had. 

This sequel will undoubtedly please fans of the first movie, as it has a lovely, cosy, nostalgic feel. Every time you see a Windex dispenser on the screen you’ll catch yourself saying “aww I remember Windex!”, and the sight of the garish house complete with Greek flag garage with fill you with warm fuzziness! 

Indeed the first part of this film relies a lot on the jokes of the first one to kickstart it, before it gets going on its own, which personally I found a little tedious, but it soon settles down and has some genuinely funny moments. Most of the funny moments come from Aunt Voula (Martin); crasser, louder, and more hilarious than ever. 

There’s really not much I can analyse about this film, but it isn’t that sort of film! It’s throwaway, breezy fun, and it’s fine; I had a good time watching it. 

What I really liked was that it had some genuinely touching moments towards the end, and Gus (Constantine) is just an absolute delight. When the film eventually takes time to have a breather from the non-stop hilarity, it’s very sweet. Perhaps not quite as naturally as the first film, but it is there somewhere!

The Bad

The first movie was endearing because even if you weren’t Greek, it was a story of boy meets girl and gets married; a formula we’ve seen hundreds of times before, but with the added family kookiness it had some memorability and a genuine heart. 

Where the sequel falls down slightly is in its contrivances. In order to call it My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, they had to have a wedding in there, but the reason that necessitates the wedding in question is so utterly trivial that it’s hard to be on board with its ludicrousness from the offset. There are funny moments along the way but so much of the film feels forced and it has to try a bit too hard to make you laugh, which the first one didn’t. 

The main thing that let it down for me was that it felt like there was too much going on. There were so many storylines and it felt like the side plots were fighting for attention. We have the big greek wedding in question, the daughter trying to decide which college to go to, there’s Toula and Ian trying to relight the fire of their relationship, and there’s Gus trying to prove his heritage. All of these kind of seemed like distractions away from the main plot, which really gave it a sitcom type of vibe instead of a movie. But that being said, there’s a lot of funny sitcoms, and for the most part this was an entertaining, albeit slightly overstuffed, way to spend 90 minutes. 

The Verdict

I saw this movie and you should to. Look, sometimes you don’t need a movie that will change your life, or make you think, or lead to deep discussions; sometimes you just need a film to entertain you, and this film did that for me. It’s a watchable light and fluffy alternative to the behemoth that is Batman Vs Superman, if superhero ass-kicking isn’t your cup of tea, but it is instantly forgettable and you might find yourself walking out the cinema and not quite remember what you had been laughing at mere minutes before. That being said, you’ll have a good time watching it, especially if you love the original, so worth checking out if that’s your type of movie! OPA!