My Big, Fat Greek Wedding 2

When I saw "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding" in 2002, I thought it was such an uproarious film about an over-the-top traditional Greek family with all the dysfunction we ourselves understand, because what family doesn't have some sort of dysfunction? Since then, I have seen few comedies that have even come close to the snappy humor found in this film. Have we lost the ability to be truly funny in this society? Then I saw "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding 2" and fell in love with the genre of comedy all over again.

Still working at her parents' Greek restaurant, Toula's (Nia Vardalos) daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris) is growing up. She is 17-years-old and getting ready to graduate from high school while Toula and Ian (John Corbett) are experiencing marital issues--not having enough time with each other and too much time with family. When Toula's parents, Gus Portokalos (Michael Constantine) and Maria (Lainie Kazan) find out they were never officially married-- the priest forgot to sign the marriage certificate 50 years ago, another wedding is in the works which is spearheaded by Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin). Can this big, fat Greek event help bring the family back together?

This was staged and paced well by director Kirk Jones ("Waking Ned Devine" '98, "Nanny McPhee" '05, "Everybody's Fine" '09, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" '12) plus TV. What I can expressly appreciate with this director is that he presented the same feel of it's previous director of the original, Joel Zwick. One would almost assume that Zwick directed this installment as well. This speaks well of Jones in that he clearly needed to convey to his audience similar character development so you and I would feel like these people never left us. It was humorously written by Nia Vardalos (""My Big, Fat Greek Wedding" '02, "Connie and Carla" '04, "I Hate Valentine's Day" '09, "Larry Crowne" '11). Certainly most of the similarity between the two films is that of Vardalos in writing both films. Sure, the films seem similar, but in this case, this is a good thing in that the original was incredibly well written, so why not do it again. As in both films, Vardalos narrates at the beginning setting the tone of the film. She is pure genius when it comes to comedies, something many comedy writers today should take note on. I feel she is the new Elaine May back in the day, when it comes to a tightly written satirical comedy. Sure, this wasn't quite as good as the original, but most sequels aren't. But then again, maybe it didn't seem as good because we already knew these characters, so it didn't seem fresh and/or new. Hey, remember "Home Alone"? It was also an uproarious comedy, so when "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" came along, it was very similar to the original as well. It was forgiving because the original was hysterical.

Certainly if you liked the original "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding", you'll like this, otherwise why would anyone even walk in the theater door? My hope is that if this is successful as its predecessor was, maybe Hollywood will get the hint and start producing better quality comedies so we can all enjoy without the fear that our intelligences are being totally insulted.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                 Rated: PG-13                               94mins.