I wanted to see a movie, but didn't feel like seeing Star Wars II or Spiderman again, so I decided to try something different. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a nice romantic comedy. Of the approximately 15 people that showed up for this movie, most were older, somewhat fat women. I believe there were only two males in the audience (including me).

If anyone belongs to a rather large family that are always together and in each other lives and business, you'll identify with the thirty-ish year old woman in this movie who falls in love with someone her father does not approve of at first. This woman at the beginning of the movie is rather homely, but she started trying to look better once she started going out with the guy.

This movie was the second comedy I've seen in a month's time that got its laughs by means other than gross-out jokes. About a Boy was an outstanding comedy, and Greek Wedding didn't quite measure up to it, but it was a good comedy that got plenty of laughs from me and the rest of the audience. Some romantic comedies have some sad, depressing stretches, and at some points during the movie, I was afraid that the movie would take a depressing turn, but it didn't. I hope that more comedies like About a Boy and My Big Fat Greek Wedding will be coming down the pike soon.

Nobody I work with had even heard of this movie until I mentioned that I'd seen it, so most people will have no idea what it's about, or that it's even playing.

Presentation: The only defect in the presentation (a rather major one) was the audio. I was sitting back in the stadium section and most of the dialogue seemed to come from the surrounds, which are placed where the walls meet the ceiling (way up). From where I was sitting, it seemed that very little sound was coming from the screen, with most audio coming from "above". Why is it so difficult for this location to get its audio systems calibrated properly?

There was no adjustable screen masking in this auditorium (1.85:1 constant aspect ratio). The movie was flat, so this was not a problem for this particular movie.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

One thing I forgot to mention before that bugged me was that they used Greek capital sigmas in place of E's on the title. Sigmas are the equivalent of English S's. There are two E equivalents in Greek: epsilon and eta.

Okay, if they mean "My Big Fat GrSSk Wedding"

BTW, I too enjoyed the film when they screened it at ShoWest.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
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No, Joe, MBFGW wasn't racist. Yes, it did show a lot of stereotypes -- all Greeks have big happy families, all Greeks own diners or travel agencies, all Greeks love big parties with lots of singing and dancing. Yes, the plot sounded like it came out of Hollywood. (It's actually based on a one-woman show by an actress of Greek descent; she plays the bride.) Yes, Evans, it's drawn a mostly older crowd. Yet . . .

MBFGW is genuinely funny. It opened in New Jersey day-and-date with Manhattan (4/18) and hasn't stopped running since -- even made the national box office top 10! Had it gone through a major MBFGW would have brought in more money yet not lasted as long.

I saw MBFGW at the AMC Hamilton the weekend Spider-Man opened. Would have enjoyed it more if a woman in the row behind me told her 10-year-old daughter to shut up.

The audience was predominantly Greek and nobody was offended by the movie, though lots of people apparently found it close-to-home. Nia Vardalos (who plays Toula and wrote the screenplay) explained that it was based on her life (not just on a one-woman show, but her actual real life), and many of the really funny things were really parts of her life, including the Windex (gotta wonder if they paid Windex or Windex paid them), the house-next-door (in real life they sold it afterwards...), etc.

Racism is in the eye of the beholder, but if the Greeks watching the movie aren't offended (and as a group they don't seem to be), there shouldn't be any cause for concern.

--jhawk

Ky and I saw this film at ShoWest this year. We both liked it and knew it would do well at our theatre.

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From the Feature Info And Trailer Attachments forum:

IFC Films (for US)
5 reels -- Flat
SR
Technicolor depot
No attached trailers
Yes, sound is Dolby SR only -- no digital.

Josh

Don't you know it is polictally correct to be racist against white people? In fact, it isn't even racism. I think the PC term is "intelligent social commentary." Same thing goes for man-bashing female comedians and anyone who has a bad thing to say about Americans in general. Not prejudice at all.

I agree there are big double standards going on. I remember when I was 10 years old living in Japan and having Japanese kids call me "gaijin." I didn't think anything of it until years later when I realized it carries about the same level of badness as a white guy throwing around the "N" word.

I have heard that Japan is probably one of the most racist nations in the world, however. I love Japan and would like to go there someday, but from what I have seen they do think they are superior to just about everybody. Of course you can't say that about ALL of them, but just the nation as a group. However I hear that they are always very polite and you'd never know if they were racist or not where you there. I think the idea that Japan thinking they are superior is interesting given the fact that they are so fascinated by American culture and the like. Of course you could always embrace "Gaijin" the same way some black people throw around the N word!