Romantic comedies are hard to make a sequel for. Most of the time, when you’re watching a sequel to a popular romantic comedy, you’ll see that it’s drawn out, doesn’t really serve much of a purpose in existing, and is simply not as good as the others. We’ve seen this happen with almost every franchise in the rom-com genre that has gotten a sequel, and it was about time that My Big Fat Greek Wedding received the same treatment. Well, it’s safe to say that the curse is still active, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was a big fat disappointment.
How to Download My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
You can download the film from a digital store. You can also stream it. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
The characters from the first movie make a happy return, however this time they are much older and have been married for a while. Toula and Ian are going through the standard emotional and romantic problems that most long-term married couples go through, especially when their teenage daughter Paris is in the process of choosing where to attend college.
Paris has been suffocated by her borderline intolerable Greek family to the point where she wants none of it, despite the fact that her parents want her to stay in Chicago and attend Northwestern University. The film then chronicles not only Toula and Ian’s journey as they’re going through love and existential crises but also, Paris as she’s having a self-reflective journey of her own.
Directed by Kirk Jones, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 came 14 years after the release of the original film, and it’s safe to say, the film is worse than the original in every conceivable way. There’s way too much that this film tries to say, but it ends up saying nothing at all with its turtle-paced storytelling, and completely bland narrative. The writing in particular is so much worse than you would expect, as the film’s dialogues are cringe-worthy and the actors don’t really care much to do a good job of it.
Not only does the film focus on the protagonist characters, but also on their daughter Paris, and even Toula’s parents Gus and Maria. This gets so overbearing, as the plot constantly shifts focus from one couple to the next, and then to Paris. Paris is an interesting character but she falls flat because of her nature and circumstance.
The louder characters keep pushing her out of the frame, and she receives much less focus overall. It would have been lovely to have a setup that focused simply on Paris and her choices about her parents, her ancestry, and her schooling. Instead, the story revolves around her making last-minute prom plans with another student after the prettiest girl in school rejects him.
Acting-wise, this film is just as mediocre as you would expect it to be. The film stars Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Ian Gomez, and Elena Kampouris, who all play their roles with minimal effort, making no character feel emotionally impactful. Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula is the only character here that I would consider somewhat impactful to the overall story, but even the parts she’s in are so unfocused in terms of the direction that you cannot feel moved at all.
Now, of course, not every aspect of the film can be that bad, can it? Well, when it comes to aesthetics, the original film had a certain charm to it, but My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is just off the charts in the random and quirky aesthetic sheet. It’s so bizarrely shot, that each shot feels like it’s handled by a different cinematographer with no synergy between the moments. The same can be said for the music, which just rehashes key themes from the older films and pretends to have reinvigorated the whole thing when it truly hasn’t.
Verdict
The original’s humor had a certain charm, but My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 pushes the humor more into the realm of American sitcoms rather than comedies. The initial allure has turned corny, as the idea behind another wedding is simply artificial and doesn’t work. This time the focus should have been on Paris’ story, but instead, Nia was adamant about keeping her character in the lead which makes the film feel confused. For a film that is titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding, there’s simply not much romance, not much comedy, and not a single moving moment to write home about.
