MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING REVIEW!!!

Initial release date: April 19, 2002

Studios: IFC Films/Gold Circle Films/HBO Films/MPH Entertainment/Playtone

Tagline: Love is here to stay ... so is her family

Plot: Everyone in the Portakalos family worries about Toula. Still unmarried at 30, she works at Dancing Zorba's, the Greek restaurant owned by her parents, Gus and Maria. After taking a job at her aunt's travel agency, she falls in love with Ian Miller, a teacher who is tall, handsome and definitely not Greek. Toula isn't sure which will be more upsetting to her father, that Ian is a foreigner, or that he's a vegetarian.

Cast

Nia Vardalos - Toula Portakalos

Michael Constantine - Gus

Lainie Kazan - Maria

Andrea Martin - Aunt Voula

Louis Mandylor - Nick

Gerry Mendicino - Uncle Taki

Stravroula Logothettis - Athena

Constantine Tsapralis - Foti

Gia Corides - Cousin Nikki

Joey Fantone - Angelo

John Corbett - Ian Miller

Ian Gomez - Mike

Writer: Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1-3; Larry Crowne)

Director: Joel Zwick

Rated PG for sensuality and language (95 minutes)

Before I reviewed My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 for the Examiner, I planned on checking out the first two movies. Since I couldn't get to them right away, I went the backwards route and watched the new movie first and watched the first movie (still have the second one to re-watch).

I'll admit this was the first time watching this movie. I reviewed the 2016 sequel for the Examiner which I will re-post towards the end of the weekend with an updated take. Before I saw this movie, I heard a lot of people saying it was really good. And, overall, I thought it was a really humorous good time!

This is one of those movies that will have you laughing and absolutely will fall in love with the entire Greek family. The actors did such an amazing job portraying the close-knit family that you swear they were an actual family.

It is also awesome to see some of the Greek traditions that are shown throughout this movie and the Gus character (a.k.a. the father) is one of the best characters in the entire movie. Aunt Voula is also of the best characters as well!!

The story is simple. The laughs are there and this is a romantic comedy that everyone should see at least once!

Here are some fun tidbits for My Big Fat Greek Wedding!!

• Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, saw the play and recommended that her husband produce a movie version. In an interview with the German magazine "Cinema," Vardalos mentioned that she hung up when Hanks called because she didn't believe it was really him.

• My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the highest-grossing romantic comedy film of all time!!!

• The scene where Andrea Martin playfully grabs Corbett's hair was ad-libbed. Martin had forgotten her lines, played with his hair (to which Corbett stayed in character and played along), remembered her lines and continued. Vardalos said it worked out so well, they decided to print this take and use it.

• All the people in the bride's side at the wedding are all members of Nia Vardalo's family.

• Had one of the longest theatrical runs for a film in the home video era, playing for 52 weeks, of which 28 were in wide release (600+ theaters). For reference, it played 11 weeks longer than Titanic, the highest grossing domestic release at the time.

• My Big Fat Greek Wedding started as a one woman play written by and starring Vardalos, performed for 6 weeks at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in LA in the summer of 1997.

• Vardalos began meeting various executives about making a film version of the play and began writing a screenplay as well. However, the meetings proved fruitless because the executives insisted on making changes that they felt would make the film more marketable, to which Vardalos objected. These included changing the plot, getting a known actress in the lead role, and changing the family's ethnicity to Hispanic.

• The film became a sleeper hit and grew steadily from its limited release. Despite NEVER hitting the No. 1 spot for a box office weekend and being an indie film with a $5 million budget, it ultimately grossed over $368.7 million worldwide, becoming one of the top romantic films of the 21st century.

• It was the 5th highest grossing film of 2002 domestically with $241,438,208. The film is among the most profitable of all time, with a 6150% return.

• Besides the sequels, the film also inspired the brief 2003 TV series My Big Fat Greek Life, which aired on CBS for one season.

https://youtu.be/O2mecmDFE-Q?si=5RYw4Wr1iKI3FUK6