My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

The movie has heart. The movie shows love that a family should have for one another. But boy this film is uneven. The story thread is a flimsy tapestry with a series of light hearted moments and gags. I just returned from a vacation to Greece. My heart was in this film. I loved the last two movies but the third film needed more time in the writer's room to ensure a nice, steady flow of jokes and heartfelt moments and solid dialogue. The performances were meh. Loved the addition of more Greek music to set the mood of Greek living. It was a nice love letter to the actor who played the father's passing but we need more than schmaltz to keep a movie on point.

With their mother suffering from dementia, a family are faced with a bit of impending mortality and decide it's time to head back to their ancestral Greek homeland for a family reunion. "Toula" (the film's auteur Nia Vardalos) and her American husband "Ian" (John Corbett) head off with her body-grooming obsessed brother "Nick" (Louis Mandylor), a pair of sagely aunts and the lovestruck - though they don't yet know it - "Paris" (Elena Kampouris) and "Aristotle" (Elias Kacavas). Upon arrival they meet the local mayor "Victory" (Melina Kotselou). Now she's an enthusiastic young woman whom, it turns out, has maybe been talking up this gathering. Indeed, the visitors might well be the only people who are coming! Their welcome locally is a bit hit and miss thanks to the imperious, curmudgeonly, and rather ubiquitous old "Alexandra" (the scene-stealing Anthi Andreopoulou) but gets slightly more friendly when they all discover just how closely related they all are, and after the hunt starts for some old friends of their father who left the island many years ago... What now ensues is the gentlest of family comedies that raises the very occasional smile; plays a lot to stereotype and generally presents us with a beautifully shot, entirely predictable, soap opera. Kampouris and Kacavas provide the eye candy, and the aunties dispense some words of wisdom now and again allowing Lainia Kazan ("Maria") to remind me a lot of Joan Rivers. Otherwise, though, this is entirely forgettable summer fayre that smacks a little of "Mamma Mia" (2008) only without the toe-tappers. It's watchable but very unremarkable.

I enjoyed the first two movies in this trilogy(?) very much, but My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 really fell flat. It seemed like a series of meaningless little events padding a rather weak premise of Toula following her father's dying wish to bring his journal to his childhood buddies in Greece. Of course, locating his dispersed chums is difficult and creates the central theme of the story. Thrown in are some poorly developed new characters including a dopey "mayor", a menacing old woman and a previously unknown relative. Also, a contrived romance between a Greek boy and a Syrian girl is shoehorned in to supply the prerequisite "Greek Wedding". There are very few laughs and a fair amount of implausability in this messy Greek salad. If you're a fan of the previous two movies, I'd advise you to wait till it comes out on video and save yourself some money.

I had a hard time sitting through the entire movie. It was that bad. Almost cringe worthy. I loved the original, it's one of my favorites. So after watching part three I was greatly let down.

Even though it's the original cast there was no heart in the film. Everyone felt like strangers. There was no connection. They tried to make it funny but it felt forced and scripted. The music did not help either, it was out of place. Everything about the movie felt empty. The lines really didn't help.

For being in the home country there wasn't enough drama or loudness. And I think that was because there wasn't enough people. Having a dead town did not help. The plot was thin and there really wasn't much to the movie. The one wedding that they did have, I didn't feel much for the couple, didn't really know them or care about them. I honestly thought for a moment there they were going to have a lesbian couple with the vibes they were giving off, but that turned out to be nothing. Which again was confusing.

They had the wrong actress for the daughter. She felt like a complete stranger. Nothing about her was likeable or relatable. And the drama of her love life feels so empty. And almost confusing. To the point where I am asking what is this?

This film might be with worst piece of editing ever, no really, it could be that bad. There were a lot of story lines and a lot of subplots. But it really felt as though someone was given an ultimatum to make the move 92 minutes no matter what, but they also did not want to cut any subplots, running gags, scenery or anything. So the film felt like a frenetic mess. It can be hard enough to make a comedy like this that also has it's poignant moments. But every scene seemed so rushed that the funny moments never had time to hit and felt so rushed it was not funny. And anything that might have been poignant did not have time to sink in. I even felt like in one scene they referenced something from a previous scene that I think was cut in editing. Or maybe it just happened so fast I missed it... It felt like it was edited by a 12 year old for a tiktok channel. I think there was a lot to work with in the film, which makes the disaster all that much sadder. I think there might have been a decent movie here had they slowed down and let the story develop and unfold. Too bad. 3/10.