I’d had a very long day, series of lectures and agonizing classes so I searched for a good movie to wind down. It’s the month of October meaning Halloween, meaning most of the movies being released or available now border on the Horror genre. And horror movies are never my thing no matter the time or season. Then I stumbled on a movie that made me gasp and I knew I had to watch it and share my experience.
Presenting you,
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)
The movie begins with the amazing Portokalos family. It starts with a rather upsetting news but the family seeks to move on from it. The mother of the family, Maria, seems to suffer some form of amnesia, but she tries to act like it’s okay for the sake of her family. Toula Portokalos had made a promise to her Dad to take his journal to his best friends in his village, Vrisi, Greece. And so the family, or at least most of them, make the trip to Greece to fulfil that wish and attend the family reunion they were invited to.
They arrive the village eventually with the help of the Mayor, Victory, a cheerful lady whose biggest desire is to bring back the citizens of Vrisi that departed from the village back into it and perhaps, get them to stay. As the day passes without word from Gus’ best friends, that wish for a reunion seems to get bleaker but Victory doesn’t lose hope and assures them that the reunion will turn out right. The people of Vrisi are amazingly warm and as jolly as expected from Greeks. They do love saying, "no" though. Lol
The visit leads to new friends, amazing bonds, adorable love stories, as well as startling discoveries but the Portokalos family remains unshakable through every discovery, proving yet another time how much family and love is valued above all else. Now whether the reunion holds or Gus’ best friends are found serves as a test to that claim.
My Thoughts and Rating
So, I’m almost always sceptical when a movie that I loved or enjoyed so much brings out a second part. I practically have to hold my breath, hoping that the movie doesn’t become a flop or I would at least enjoy it just as much as I did the first part. Now on the rare cases that I do enjoy the second part of these movies or maybe even more than the first one, I don’t expect the producers to go for a third part. It’s more like overstaying your welcome or stretching your luck a tad too far, as far as I’m concerned. But I watch it with one eye closed and hope for the best.
In the case of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, I was sorely disappointed. Part 2 was such a blast and I don’t think I ever watched a movie with as much humour that year. Was part 3 devoid of humour then? No, it wasn’t. But, it was playing on the same type of jokes that had been overused in the past. It was evident to me that they were trying so hard to make the movie humorous but they weren’t successful in my opinion. I mean I laughed a couple of times but it was cliché for the most part and I ended up with this face for most of the movie.😐
Then there were the scenes. I feel like every good movie should not be more than ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes max. So, I’m not sure if they were trying hard to at least meet that 90-minute benchmark because the degree of unnecessary scenes was off the roof. Every scene in a good movie should have something to say. We should learn, discover, or be let in on something. Basically, information should be gained from it. But we ended up with scenes that left me with nothing and my brain would go, “....okay, what just happened?”
There was no real character development for some new characters and I was sadly, left with dust in my mouth. I’m not sure if my dissatisfaction with the movie stemmed from the fact that my favourite character was absent but I guess that’s what started me off on a bad note. However, I still feel that the story is still light-hearted for the most part. Still one to let your mind relax, learn about the Greek culture and laugh at the matchmaking antics of Greek aunties, and generally leaves you feeling light and cheerful in the end. I hope you get to see it and perhaps love it. On that note, I'll give it a 3 out of 5 stars.
Jhymi🖤
P.S: Meanwhile I’m off to watch the second part again. Have some really amazing laughs.
