According to patriarch Gus (Michael Constantine), the word “sequel” probably has its origins in Greek. “There you go,” he’d say. And “there you go” is a pretty accurate summary of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. In a movie that promises a “bigger and Greeker wedding” than the 2002 original, they deliver no more and no less than they promise.
Penned by Nia Vardalos, the whole gang is back, just a bit older and not necessarily wiser. Toula (Vardalos) and Ian (John Corbett) have been married long enough to have broody eighteen-year-old Paris and settled into a life ruled by their daughter, still constantly surrounded by Toula’s family. When Toula’s parents Gus and Maria (Lainie Kazan) discover they aren’t married, Maria wants to get married the right way – so a wedding is in order. It’s a pretty thinly veiled plot device to leave the original name intact.
I would award My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 a big fat ‘you tried’ star. I’ve seen the 2002 original more times than I’d like to admit, so although I didn’t ask for it, it was nice to check back in with the Portokalos family. The disappointing part is that no one has changed. The restaurant is still there, Toula still worries too much, Gus prescribes Windex for everything, and Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) is still wildly inappropriate. So many of the same jokes were used from the first film that it went from being cute callbacks to lazy writing incredibly quickly.
New storylines are half-heartedly introduced, from the broody daughter determined to escape to a college far away, to the wedding between Gus and Maria, to a completely random coming out C-plot. There’s even an incredibly pointless cameo from John Stamos and Rita Wilson (also a producer). But none of it seems genuine and it all seems contrived to set up jokes. The beautiful part about the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding was that while it was sitcom-y, it was anchored by true affection for the family and a really great love story between Toula and Ian. Here, poor John Corbett mostly just stands around with nothing to do. A plot line to reignite the spark between Ian and Toula feels like a misguided attempt to get back to the heart of the original. We at least get a pretty hilarious interrupted-sex-in the-car scene out of it.
Lazy jokes and ineffective storylines aside, the film is a lot of fun. It’s clear this sequel wasn’t meant as anything more than an easy buck, so it mostly goes for the lowest-hanging fruit. Still, it’s low-hanging fruit for a reason. From Toula’s brothers and cousins being protective to Gus and his brother-in-law hiding from their wives to Aunt Voula’s wild zingers, it’s hardly a boring 94 minutes. If you’re a fan of the original, maybe wait until this sequel hits VOD in a few months. Or, better yet, just go watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding again.
