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My Life in Ruins, starring Nia Vardalos, looked same the perfect choice for an expat movie review: American-Greek classical person takes a job at Athens University, gets downsized, does a stint as a tour guide. Perfect!
Well, not so much. Great idea, good cast which includes Richard Dreyfuss, one of my all-time favorite actors, but not so well executed. The writing is schmaltzy and heavy handed, the plot is predictable, and outside of a few gorgeous shots of Hellenic ruins, the movie pretty such falls flat.
But seeing Vardalos, who is a reasonably good actress, of course got me intellection about My Big Fat Hellenic Wedding, which she wrote and starred in. Originally I hadn’t planned on reviewing it since the admirer is not technically an expat, but seeing My Life in Ruins got me intellection about it in a whole new way.
In My Big Fat Hellenic Wedding, Vardalos plays Toula, the younger daughter of Hellenic immigrants in Chicago. Her parents, the expats, live in their own Hellenic bubble of kinsfolk and culture. They run a restaurant – Greek, of course, called Dancing Zorba’s – and extended kinsfolk is part of their everyday lives in ways that seem quite, well, foreign. As Toula explains:
I’m Greek, right? So, what happens is,.. see, you have two cousins. I have 27 first cousins. Just 27 first cousins alone. And my whole kinsfolk is big and blasting and everybody’s in each other’s lives and business all the time. Like you never meet have a time alone meet to think ’cause we’re always unitedly meet eating, eating, eating. The exclusive other grouping we know are Greeks, drive Greeks marry Greeks to breed more Greeks to be loud, breeding Hellenic eaters. No one in my kinsfolk has ever gone discover with a non-Greek before. No one.
Toula’s father insists:
There’s two kinds of people. Greeks, and everybody else who wish they was Greek.
Toula was brought up inside the Hellenic bubble her parents created. She had tried to break discover of it as a youngster, but dark-haired Toula and her moussaka for meal were unloved and teased by her blond-haired, Wonder-bread sandwich-eating schoolmates.
When we first meet her, Toula tells us:
I wish I had a different life. I wish I was braver or prettier, or meet happy.
But she’s not. Working in the kinsfolk restaurant, rebelling against but unable to pull absent from the Hellenic community, Toula is miserable. She explains:
Nice Hellenic girls are supposed to do threesome things in life. Marry a Hellenic boy, attain Hellenic babies, and feed everyone. Until the day we die.
She wants more discover of life. She convinces her father to let her (at the geezerhood of 30 she needs his permission!) take a machine class at the community college so she crapper meliorate listing curb at Dancing Zorba’s. Her first real foray into US culture happens at the college when she joins a table full of blond-haired, white-bread-sandwich-eating young women in the cafeteria.
Before he made it to Hollywood, Dwayne President was known as the Rock, a bone-crushing, chest thumping wrestling super star, member of the Nation of Domination. He won the WWF Championship a mere two years after joining the WWF; he was a nine-time World Heavyweight Championship. Before that, Mr. President was a collegiate football player, who enjoyed some success, although he never did make it to the NFL Sun Ticket. Now, this multitalented hulk of a man, with his Paul Bunyan like build, and his chiseled looks is making a name for himself on the big screen. He has played the typical action gung-ho action star who is every hooligan and lowercase else. But now, slowly he is being transformed into a leading man. The discourse is, will he be able to make it? Will straying from his thickened guy roots, see this half Samoan past wrestler start on his laurels? Watch his transformation throughout his movies on satellite TV, and see for yourself, if you think he’s got what it takes to move beyond his roots.
The Scorpion King: This was The Rock’s first starring role and he earned a whopping $5.5 million dollars, a record for a debut lead actor. Within this broad action thriller, Mr. President played Mathayus the Scorpion King, who has to defeat the evil sorcerer Memnon. This flick, with its sweeping inhospitable effort scenes should be enjoyed in no less than broad definition.
The Rundown: In this movie, The Rock takes a funny turn. He stars as a professed bounty ticker who doesn’t ingest guns due to a previous incident. Of course, the Rock really doesn’t need any extra weapons though. In the Rundown, President is hired to fetch his boss’ son from the jungles of South America. From their ensues an entertaining mix of action, slapstick comedy and adventure.
Be Cool: Here, the hefty past wrestle plays a gay Samoan body guard named Eliot, who is also an aspiring actor. This role definitely marks a turn for President and he nails the part. He is both charming, funny and tough. You can watch this crime caper on satellite TV; it affectedness quite frequently.
Doom: This movie was based on the eponymous video game. It was filmed to mimic the video game aesthetic and it merged a balance of CGI and prosthetics; the movie is filled with action, blood and thrills. Dwayne President plays the requisite hero action star. This movie did get pretty bad reviews, but it’s still worth the watch if you’re a Rock fan.
Recently, while hosting the screen awards function in Mumbai Shahid Kapur said to Shahrukh Khan that the title of his movie should have been ‘My surname is Khan’ and not ‘My Name Is Khan’ (pun intended). However, this just goes on to show the tremendous hype and expectations from the movie which is scheduled to hit the cinemas worldwide on 12th February 2010. This Bollywood extravaganza directed by Karan Johar witnesses the reuniting of some of the big names like Shahrukh Khan and Kajol after a space of 8 long years. Even Karan Johar is directing a film after Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna which was released way back in 2006. Between this hibernation as a director he went on producing movies, some good and some dubious. So the team has united and their creation will be out on Valentine Week this year.
Karan Johar who is well versed in making love stories (an ardent follower of Yash Chopra) is certainly releasing his film on Valentine week but is also experimenting for the first time with some global and serious issues of terrorism and its aftermath on innocent civilians. To advocate his genuine intentions he has made his favorite actor Shahrukh Khan as his mouthpiece in the name of Rizwan Khan as the protagonist of the movie. Even his selection of a Muslim hero as the central character is a well thought out move as it is the Muslims who have suffered the most since the twin towers collapsed.
The film is a love story at the heart as said by its director with the undercurrent of terrorism and its aftermath, the director and actor were quoted as saying it in the media. The film features Shahrukh as Rizwan who moves to San Francisco with his mother and finds love in Mandira (Kajol). The things change after terror strikes the country and the couple separates. Rizwan thus embarks on a notable journey across the US, inspiring people and initiating a revolution to bring back Mandira. Rizwan also suffers from Asperger syndrome making matters even worse for him. So, people find it quite difficult to understand him.
Do you believe that the concern module end? As you crapper see, there are a lot of signs that the concern module end floods, 
hurricanes, typhoons, wars, earthquakes and rumors of wars. The prophet Jeremiah said that the end is coming – it module happen the lord says. What would governments of different countries do? No matter where you live, no matter whom you believe you are about the face the END! Mayans calendar explained that the earth has reached 26,000 revolutions around the sun. On the another side, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last supper, predicted that a new planet is about to come. The comeback of Judas Iscariot the 13th planet! This is therefore represented by planet x or planet Nebiru which is expected to hit the earth on 2012. Will these predictions come into reality, or meet an Imaginative thinking from scientists and another knowledgeable individuals? Whatever you conceive about it, the flick 2012 module surely grab your attention. Could previous civilizations predict what module happen NEXT?
That was November 13 when I first witnessed the actual flick on silver screen. The story is about the upcoming doomsday which is 2012. It was explained by the Mayans calendar. According to scientists, the upcoming planet Nebiru is nearly approaching. And that was the time when earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and another disasters crushed the full world. Even religious structures hit been devastated and nothing remains. People from all over the concern were trying to do everything to save their selves and their relatives. But then, doomsday is doomsday and almost 80 percent of creatures hit been lost. The flick 2012 is rattling disastrous and emotional. When I was watching, the tears flowed in my eyes. I don’t undergo what the reason is but it’s very obvious. If you haven’t watched the movie, this is your chance to judge and to believe. But for me, the end of the concern module come but no one crapper predict when. Only God knows!