My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding

[Fierce Critter]

Finally checked this out from my library and watched it.

I thought it was a lot of fun. A really cute story.

If you come from a big, ethnic family like I do (Polish, but any ethnicity will do), you'll probably get a bigger kick out of it than your average Heinz 57 viewer, and find yourself doing a lot of nodding as the references to big, ethnic family eccentricities remind you of your own.

Warning: Expect to crave Greektown big time after watching it. The day after we watched it, my husband and I ended up breaking the budget to go 30 miles away to a Greek restaurant that has a full buffet on Sunday. OPA!!!

[gothicmom]

I LOVE this movie. We own it and my daughter and I both watch it often.

[gothicmom]

oh yeah, I also crave Greek food after watching!

Not sure of any places around here. boo-hoo

OPA!!!!!!

[DisturbedMania]

Saganaki (opa, flaming cheeze) is a very simple recipe. Slice kassari cheeze about 1/4 in thick dip in egg and flour and fry in skillet until browned on both sides. Remove from heat add brandy (not much), then flame and squirt with lemon. Opa!

[gothicmom]

We had flaming sausage last time we went to Greek town. It was great!

[Jarodaka]

Jarod's mini-review:

The movie was well done, but I didn't quite buy into it. The movie seemed to plod along rather obviously: "here is the family strife", "here is the make-over part", "here is where they fall in love", "here is the big, loud, Greek family -- oh, haha, doesn't waspy guy seem so out of place?" The movie never took me out of that mindset and didn't made me care about the characters.

Yet, somehow, 'miraculously,' they overcame her dad's sexism and racism (which is cute because he's old, apparently). Oh, dad, you're so funny! You know it's not the 1950's and now a girl can use computers and marry out of her gene pool! Very contrived and very little actual conflict.

[Fierce Critter]

All that may be very true - particularly from a "cinema critique" point of view. I won't dispute that.

But I think films like this are meant for a different eye. It's typical romantic comedy, and I don't think serious conflict has a real place in these lighter films. Call 'em "chick flicks" if you must, but I think that kinda dumbs-down the perception of the women (and some men) who watch & enjoy these movies. Sometimes a little modern day fairy-tale is nice to relax & entertain one's self with, without having to deal with a lot of forehead-wrinkling anxiety & stress.

I don't watch romantic comedies all that often, just as I never read Harlequin Romance books. I'm interested in movies as pretty much pure entertainment, so I don't need cerebral mind-benders on a regular basis. But I also do like a LITTLE substance in the films I watch most of the time. Romantic comedies pretty much are my infrequent exception to my already relaxed rules.

[Jarodaka]

I deliberately avoided using the phrase 'chick flick.'

[gothicmom]

I was happy to have a good romantic comedy that my daughter could watch. No bad language, sex or nudity.

[Fierce Critter]

I deliberately avoided using the phrase 'chick flick.'

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh. That's considerate of you, Jarod. But just like Harlequin romances are associated almost 100% with a certain type of person, and mainly female, I think certain films fit the "chick flick" label legitimately.

I'm not offended by the term. Don't know about others, but I'm not. And I think MBFGW fits the label - it's one reason it's taken me this long to go ahead and watch it.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I actually LIKE a lot of "chick flicks" (learned to like them in the last 5-6 years), wasn't very happy with this one though. I actually went out of my way to watch this thing , ordered it from netflix. Just a bit too forced and light on believability along with , my pet peve of making me feel a bit insulted by the predictible storyline.

For some reason the part with the Greek brothers feeding the boyfriend with random , inappropriate Greek phrases to say in public has stuck with me and brings a smile to my face when i think about it. :laughing:

Not nessiarly a "bad" movie, but when i think of all the 1000s of other choices, i cant imagine sitting through this one again.

*pulls out a bottle of windex*