By LAURIE COKER
When a film does decently at the box office, filmmakers often consider sequels. Sometimes, the sequel pays off, and other times, they do not. If a second film bombs, it’s best to let the series lay, but despite abysmal reviews for number two, the makers of the “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” franchise have made a third one, and it is not much better than the second and far removed from the first. Writer, director, and star Nia Vardalos returns with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3”, bringing back several familiar faces and adding a few new ones to the mix.
This time, the Portokalos family, on the heels of the patriarch Gus’s (the late Michael Constantine) passing, plans a family trip to Greece to carry out her father’s wish that his childhood friends get his journal. Toula (Vardalos) takes husband Ian (John Corbett), daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris), brother Nick (Louis Mandylor) and Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin) to a remote village in Greece. They are joined by Aristotle (Elias Kacavas), Paris’s estranged boyfriend, and we are introduced to an array of quirky characters and oddball situations. The mayor, Victory (Melina Kotselou) hopes the family reunion and the influx of people will save her dying village.
True to form, the family falls into outrageous situations, many of them they create, and a few laughs do come. Varadalos struggles to find the storylines to make this sequel necessary, relying heavily on the loss of Gus, her mother’s dementia, and a thin story about the journal and childhood friends. The addition of new characters, like the mayor and surprise family members, makes for some silly and seemingly forced twists.
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