I really, really, REALLY wanted to love My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, but the truth is I’d be lying if I claimed to have had a great time.

Directed by Kirk Jones and starring Nia Vandalos, John Corbett, Elena Kampouris and  Joey Fatone, the film picks up approximately 12 years after the first one ended. As you can imagine, life has moved along for the characters – some things have certainly changed but far more has stayed exactly the same and not in the best way.

It’s not great when you realise that in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, at least 90 percent of the moments that were supposed to be funny are more or less repeats of jokes that were much funnier in the first movie.

If I were to pick one good thing about this sequel, I’d say that personally, it was great getting to hear aunt ‘bobopsky’ deliver a few more funny lines. By aunt bobosky, I of course mean aunt Voula, my favourite character from the first movie; the one played to great comic effect by Andrea Martin. Sadly though, even she nor the memory of how great she was in the first film could prove quite enough to save this sequel.

There are aspects of the execution of one or two moving moments in the film that I enjoyed. It’s just that when I look at said moments as part of the rest of the story and not just random stand alone moments, they begin to appear quite contrived and sometimes definitely awkward.

It’s kind of strange for me that some might see the film and think a lot happened. For me  it feels as though hardly anything happened at all. Except for the usual chaos of the Portokalos clan.

I remember finding Michael Constantine’s portrayal of Toula’s dad (Gus) amusing in the first movie. This time round, his narrow view of a woman’s role in the world was very  annoying to say the least.

There’s a very slim chance that I may not have been in the right state of mind to receive what My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 had to offer. Whatever the case may be, my worst fear about the sequel has definitely come true because I honestly could have done without it.

For anyone that hasn’t seen either film, I recommend seeing the original and making sue to stop right there.

Happy Film Loving,

G