We didn’t want a 3rd serving to of the “Big Fat Greek Wedding” franchise.
Series star and inventive drive Nia Vardalos doesn’t argue in any other case. Her third movie in the saga, which she wrote and directed, is one other excuse to have fun Greek tradition and share mini-stories from the Portokalos clan.
Your urge for food for the threequel depends upon a willingness to simply accept sub-sitcom gags and plot developments with little heft or gravitas.
The threequel opens with the household’s growing old matriarch (Lanie Kazan) detailing the movie’s plot. Toula (Vardalos) and her brood should jet to Greece to allow them to share the patriarch’s journal along with his childhood associates.
Kazan’s character actually says this out loud.
So off they go, visiting the land the place Papa Gus (the late Michael Constantine) as soon as roamed, keen to meet his dying want.
Except the story isn’t laser centered on that plotline. Instead, we’re handled to lighter-than-air subplots which regularly resolve themselves in minutes.
- Will Toula’s daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris) rekindle her curiosity in an previous flame?
- Can Uncle Nick (Louis Mandylor) trim his physique hair and nails in each room of the trip home?
- Will we see somebody get away the Windex bottle, once more?
Running gags abound, and whereas none overstay their welcome they don’t draw many laughs the first time round. The humor right here is clear, broad and inconsequential. The unique movie, as corny because it was heat, delivered huge stomach laughs.
The franchise now not even tries to match that feat.
The Greek vistas are fantastic and for some price the worth of admission. Still, the nation has been showcased to better impact in different movies – even 2020’s “The Trip to Greece.”
Vardalos’ route is completely suited to the materials … and that’s neither a praise nor a dig. her on-screen husband John Corbett appears to be like both distracted or bored at occasions, as if he bought the reunion invite however wasn’t certain what to make of it.
We additionally get infinite hugs, cute nods to Greek tradition and the largest query of all. If the prolonged brood loves Greece a lot, why did it take three motion pictures to go to the precise nation?
Andrea Martin does what she will be able to to steal her scenes as Aunt Voula, however the screenplay does her few favors.
A couple of moments join, like Toula and Nick discussing who must be the “head” of the household now that their father is gone. It’s a second the actors promote with quiet dignity.
The movie gives a soupcon of woke in the type of Victory (Melina Kotselou), the Greek city’s mayor who occurs to be non-binary. The script, once more, screams its intentions throughout one clunky sequence. That’s the place the woke begins and fortunately stops.
It’s onerous to get grumpy a few generic sequel like this third “Wedding.” The forged is having a blast and the sense of camaraderie is profound. Plus, it’s nonetheless uncommon for a mainstream comedy to toast Greek tradition practically 20 years after the first “Wedding” rocked Hollywood.
HiT or Miss: “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” gives one other spherical of amiable chaos from Toula and firm, an agreeable story that’s unattainable to hate however simple to neglect.
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