On March 26, the sequel to the wildly popular 2002 romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out. In the first movie, Greek woman Toula Portokalos married Ian, a non-Greek who had to earn the approval of Toula’s family. In this sequel, Toula and Ian must cope with the fact that their daughter is going away to college, along with many other issues. Toula’s parents discover that they are not actually married, and her mother insists on having a second wedding. Chaos ensues, but in the end, everything turns out alright for the entire family.
Despite not getting great reviews, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is a fairly good sequel that remains true to the original. What makes it work are the characters, who are all just as fun and endearing as they were in the first movie. The original cast is great, and so are newcomers John Stamos, Alex Wolf, and Elena Kampouris.
However, there just aren’t as many laugh-out-loud moments in this film as there were in the original. Most of the jokes seemed reused. This movie also tried to pull at the heartstrings more than its predecessor, which didn’t work too well. This is because whenever something dramatic happened, there were many ill-fitting jokes covering it up.
With all that aside, if you thoroughly enjoyed the original film, then you will like its sequel. It did not deserve the bad reviews that it got. Even though it’s a little inconsistent, it is light-hearted, funny, and heartfelt. It makes you feel for and connect with its characters, despite their craziness. In spite of all the gags, this is a human and relatable film that you should be able to enjoy with your whole family.