My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Rating:
Summary: My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Review: I really liked this movie. Some of the jokes weren't all that funny, but the overall story line was great. I would recommend this to any one over 16. Anyone under that age might not get the point of much of it.

Rating:
Summary: Simple but True
Review: How many times have we been bombarded by feel good movies, where a lady would fall in love with Mr. Perfect and they would get married and lived happily ever after? Barbara Streisand, Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zweigger (wrong spelling, I know!) had their fair share of such movie roles. When I was offered this movie, my instant remark would be yeah, yeah, yeah, not another one. However, I was won over by its believeable characters, so human, so real. Nothing over-the-top, nothing fancy but simply a simple tale about the character who was brought up in a traditional Greek family. She aspired to be someone better & yet, she was tied down by her family obligation. On top for being a romance movie, it's also a movie about family acceptance of who you become and a movie about you being you. The Greeks cliches in this instance were many, something that you wouldn't miss in the Greek restaurants & it's rather hillarious. Yeah, N-Sync's Joey Fatone was in here too, & not doing particularly bad for his effort. Highly commendable to be shared with your family.

Rating:
Summary: Could Have been funnier
Review: This movie was funny, but not what I expected.
You know the story, but the laughs were not that BIG and FAT.
The characters were believeable and well acted, but the script could have been better.
That whole Windex was extremely not funny, considering the fact the you could get an affection from spraying house hold cleaner on an open wound.
i thought there could have been more about the wedding.
One of my friends, who happens to be greek, raved about this movie, so I guess I had high expectations, but this movie didn't forfill most of them.
I normally love comedys, but this didn't have me rolling with laughter.
It's good for a rainy day, but I recommend "Miss Congeniality" over it.
Sorry if I sound whiny, I normally don't flame reviews because I hate critics, I just feel that it could have been funnier.

Rating:
Summary: My Big Fat Okay Greek Wedding
Review: There is nothing particularly special about this movie. What it has going for it is quite simple. It is pleasant, predictable, and modestly charming. There are many problems here--the main character's unbelievable transformation, seemingly overnight, from a homely serving girl to a hot telemarketer, characters who are defined by one or two odd quirks (like the cloying father who sprays Windex on his skin conditions, as well as everyone else's), a stereotypical "WASP" family that, again, is almost instantaneously transformed by the "charms" of an extended (and hopefully exagerrated) Greek family. Again, these problems might matter if this movie aspired to anything more than feel-good pleasantness. It's a small movie in many respects, but has its pleasures.

Would I recommend it? Not really. But you could do worse in blowing an afternoon. It might actually leave you in a good mood, provided that, unlike me, you aren't driven into a funk by a loud, gaudy, machine-gun talking Greek family. I find it hard to take--in part because it hits way too close to home.

Rating:
Summary: what a bore
Review: It's cute. It's funny. That's it. The jokes get old after awhile, or they've all been shown in the commercials. It isn't anything new, the story line is dull simply because you know that they're going to end up happy in the end. The only thing that the movie has going for it is characterization, particularly that of the father. The funny parts, on second glance, are merely amusing, and nothing more.

Rating:
Summary: Empty, Useless Story
Review: With all the hoopla surrounding this movie, I decided to take the plunge and get the tape. What a waste! Everything in this movie just happens. There is no development of anyone or anything.

For the central love story, there is no development at all. Toula and Ian fall in love and decide to get married all in a couple of scenes. They do this after seeing each other a few times through a window or across a crowded restaurant. The dialogue between them is so predictable and so forgettable it's embarassing to witness it.

Toula, the main character of this void of a movie, supposedly goes through a "transformation" at some point in her life. She starts off as a homely young woman wasting her time as a waitress in her family's restaurant. She decides to quit working in the restaurant and "make something of herself." Why does she suddenly "awaken"? Well, because she saw that good-looking guy through the window. All right, even if you accept this idiocy, you don't get to see any of her development actually happen. We're just told that she enrolls in some computer classes at a local college. Next thing we know, Toula is a self-conscious, good-looking young woman. No development at all.

So many of the characters are completely wooden. Ian's parents say a total of about ten words the entire movie. Their role is to stand around and look shocked, horrified, and amazed at all the activities around them. They are hardly people.

The only reason I gave this movie 2 stars is because there are a few good gag scenes poking fun at Greek culture and family attitudes. Since I'm not Greek, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these depictions, but a few of them are indeed very funny.

If the director had made a documentary showing how nutty Greeks get during major family rituals, this might have been an entertaining movie. The problem is, they decided to build a plot and a love story, and it just doesn't work.

Rating:
Summary: A FAIL-SAFE CULTURAL+WEDDING CLICHE, WELL, FAILS
Review: What explains my near Pavlovian response toward this cliche-ridden movie? The lack of any chemistry or spark between Ian and Toula. Speaking of Toula, you cannot retrofit a mule into a tuxedo and hope it looks like a mare. But that's not it. The movie is full of cardboard cliches, including:

(1) A raving lunatic of a father thumping everything as a gift to mankind from the Greeks, and advocating the use of a quaint insecticide as a panacea to all ills

(2) The tested and tried notion of "speak your heart now, or long until eternity for your beloved" (when the characters aren't in danger of marrying the wrong person, it's usually because they're in danger of not getting married at all)

(3) Which leads us into the race against time to get prepared for marriage, including getting the mule of a bride looking like a fairy rabbit, pronto

(4) Dramatic, flowy white wedding costumes and how that turns wedding photographers into Droolers Over All Women, Particularly The Bridesmaids

(5) And then, throw in the big bromidic wedding finale -- the bride's raucous Greek relatives (and they crawl out of the woodwork by the dozen of course given the deep filial bonds of their "type") meet with the uppetty New Yorker "white" family of the groom and troubles ensue.

Troubles for the viewer, that is.

Blame tepid acting, or improbable plots, or a shallow reliance on pat ethnic jokes -- but this movie just doesn't cut it as a legitimate comedy, or legitimate anything. I'll give it a couple of stars though for some convincing attempts from John Corbett and that's because it is a fine day.

Rating:
Summary: Drop Dead Boring
Review: This should be called "Two boring [...]hook up". The guy even admits that his life was empty and dull before he met her. Is that the kind of guy you would want to marry? Yech. [...]. This movie had no tension, no climax, a few [...] giggles, no real reason to watch it. Hype.

Rating:
Summary: Great-though not the greatest movie I've ever seen
Review: I have seen both the theater version of this movie and the DVD. I enjoyed both. I found the storyline-a single 30-year old Greek woman from Chicago who transforms her life-original and entertaining. I also felt that all of the performances-from John Corbett, Nia herself, Michael Constantine, Lanie Kazan-were deep and heartfelt. However, the movie wasn't as funny as I thought it would be (and I saw it early on before the hype). But it also was more profound with a far stronger message about family than I expected at the time.
The voice over commentary on the DVD entertained me. You realize what a labor of love this movie was for Nia and John Corbett and all the others involved in its making. You also understand the importance of family and relationships to her.
I would recommend this movie to most people. It is not a classic romantic comedy-that is actually part of its charm. However, it may not meet your expectations on the comedic scale. But it may exceed your expectations in other areas, most notably the power of love.

Rating:
Summary: Wedding Reception
Review: My Big Fat Greek Wedding took movie audiences by storm in 2002. After all the hoopla created by the film, I was a bit skeptical about just how good it was. Finally, after all this time, I decided to give it a shot.

Toula (Nia Vardalos) has been hounded by her family to find Mr Right and settle down. Her Mother Maria (Lainie Kazan), and Father Gus ( Michael Constantine) think that, at age 30, she should find a young and stable man, who shares her Greek heratige. Imagine her family's surprise when she announces that she is, in fact, engaged to a WASP named Ian (John Corbett)

Directed by Joel Zwick and written by its star Vardalos, the film really doesn't offer anything new for a romnatic comedy. All of the cliches` that you would expect from a movie like this are there. The only thing that seems "new" is that there are not many films that have centered around a Greek family More often, it's an italian, irish, Anglo or jewish brood who is front and center. The film does have some great casting, especially with Constantine and Kazan, who just about steal the show. Both of them are quite funny have real spark as husband and wife-even more than Vardalos and Corbett do. It's not that it's a bad film though, I just don't see what all the fuss was about. If you like this type of film than this might seem like an unfair review If you have never seen it than it's worth a look.

The DVD does have an enjoyable commentary track withVardalos, actor Corbett, and Zwick that was very light easygoing though. Cast and crew information is the only other extra here. Can you say "special edition will be released later on down the road"? I woudn't doubt it at all. For those folks that have a preference, the film can be viewed in either the full-screen or the widescreen formats,

The film is good, but not anything all that new, just an average romantic comedy "made" with some greek dressing