Review of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3: An Overly Flabby Sequel with Exhausted Jokes

THIS is the sequel a lot of people have been calling for. Who? I hear you ask.

Well, the cast of the two previous My Big Fat Greek Wedding movies — who are unlikely to find much gainful employment elsewhere.

Writer and star Nia Vardalos seems out of fresh ideas for this second sequel to the 2002 rom-com, like just taking the clan abroadCredit: PA

Two decades on from the hit 2002 rom-com, many of them must need a big fat wage cheque to pay their plastic surgeons.

I know the Mediterranean diet is supposed to maintain a youthful appearance, but it doesn’t stretch skin.

Considering that the first film was such a huge hit it is surprising that its writer and star Nia Vardalos didn’t become a household name.

This third outing suggests her problem is a lack of fresh ideas.

Nia, who directs this one, returns as Toula from the Portokalos family in Chicago alongside her non-Greek husband Ian (Sex And The City’s John Corbett).

So, what new twist did Nia find to move this well-trodden story along? She decided to take the clan abroad. Not like anyone’s done that before, is it?

Toula and co head to a remote Greek village for a reunion, where she hopes to hand her late father’s journals over to his old pals.

The romantic subplots include Toula’s daughter Paris being set up with her ex-boyfriend Aristotle and a forbidden relationship between a local and a Syrian refugee.

There is also the mystery of a “handsome” man who appears to be following Toula and why her brother Nick is trying to find the town’s oldest tree.

None of these storylines will keep you on tenterhooks for long, because they are mainly explained shortly after they begin.

Tempting as it is to totally skewer this undercooked offering, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 shouldn’t necessarily be shunned at the multiplex.

Faced with a relentless diet of depressing news some of you might enjoy a spot of cinematic escapism.

If you wish to be transported for an hour and a half to a happy smiley world, where people dance in the streets and problems can be easily resolved then this movie won’t be all Greek to you.

The slapstick jokes come so thick and fast that it doesn’t matter that a few of them are as old as the Acropolis.

But I’d be amazed if it will leave anyone crying out for four.

WALKING home up a steep path in the South Korean capital Seoul, two schoolchildren stop at a fork in the road.

One, the girl Nora, is about to emigrate with her family to Canada, while the boy, Hae Sung, is devastated to see her go.

Past Lives is a very grown-up romance – and it is a highly impressive directorial debut from Celine SongCredit: STUDIOCANAL

It’s a poignant image in this highly impressive directorial debut from Celine Song.

Past Lives, which is set in the United States and South Korea, is both a “what if” movie and a “will they, won’t they” one.

The question is what would have happened to if their childhood romance hadn’t been ruined by her departure.

The drama stems from the question of whether they will ever get back together.

Their barrier is not only thousands of miles, but Na Young being married.

The moment Hae Sung meets her husband is even more awkward than a Conservative education minister’s off mic comments.

The two leads, Greta Lee and Teo Yoo playing the pair as adults, are great, speaking a thousand words with their uncertain glances.

If you are looking for some grown up romance, don’t let Past Lives get away.

AS the young child scrambled down the dark corridor to escape the demonic nun, I glanced at the exit sign.

Not because I was scared, but because I was bored.

You’ll soon be praying for the exit out of sheer boredom soon after starting The Nun 2Credit: Zuma Press

The Nun 2 is the latest movie from the ‘Conjuring Universe.’

While The Conjuring films, starring Vera Farmiga, were entertaining horror flicks about a pair of exorcists, The Nun suggests that all universes have limits.

This story about Sister Irene, played by Vera’s younger sibling Taissa, tracking down a demon nun is far too familiar.

There are lots of twisting heads on possessed souls, wreaking havoc in dimly lit spaces, but none of the cast, including Euphoria’s Storm Reid, can inject any life into lines such as “I know what the demon wants.”

Director Michael Chaves shows some clever visual touches, such as the wind blowing magazine pages into a spooky image.

But those artistic flourishes only slow down what is already a poorly paced trudge.

The Nun 2 rises slightly from its slumber towards the end, by which time I was hoping for the bowels of hell to open up beneath the cinema.