My Life in Ruins (2009)

You won't be disappointed!

Great Film overall

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This movie once again sends the message that women can't be happy by themselves. Yes the "poor" tour guide is rescued by a Mills and Boonesque "hero" with matching long hair and muscles, but then he is made to change into a clean shaven suit wearing professional (i.e. the Hollywood "ideal" marrying man). As others have mentioned the stereotypes are over the top and do not stop existing despite the emotional change in the tour guide (despite what different people have said)- for example, the Foster's drinking Australians never stop using the rhyming slang and give a Foster's to the sick guy in hospital near the end (as if he would want it when real Australians find it disgusting). I think the producers of this film just watched other films containing such stereotypes and thought that was how these people really are. I was surprised not to see a police officer eating donuts and a token Japanese person taking pictures of everything. Lazy formulaic film made by people just wanting to make a quick buck off the back of Big Fat Greek Wedding. Good to see it didn't work.

Has anyone seen the 1969 movie "If this is Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium?". " My life in Ruins"-what an excellent if corny title- is much the same theme. The film could have been serialised in Mad magazine. No, it is not a great movie but good light entertainment not to be taken seriously. I dwell in Greece and like Nia I am a Greek Canadian, we both speak Greek fluently enough but with a bad accent. I have never taken a bus tour in Greece but have Canadian friends who did and have told me of similar experiences as those shown in the movie. My one and only experience as a tourist on a bus full of Torontonians and Montrealers was in Mexcio in 1977 and it was pretty much the same. A crazy and life threatening driver called Pedro, a funny guide Pepe who realised we all wanted more humour than education about the Mexican ruins etc "Thees was where the thee pipi room was. You know, when the Aztecs they wanna make pipi". My Life in Ruins spares nobody be they Greek, American, Canadian, Spanish, British or Australian. I think it would be hard to appreciate the comedy for anyone who has never visited Greece or ever been part of a tourist bus group and laugh as much as I did. That's the thing about comedies, probably the most difficult of all movie genres; one has to relate to the situation and to the characters. I would put My Life in Ruins on a par with My Big Fat Greek Wedding (though not the later TV show which was a disaster).

The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was because of lovely Nia Vardalos. I was crazy about 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding', so I was hoping that this romantic comedy would be of the same caliber but sadly it wasn't.The story was very sweet and catchy but most of the scenes seemed very cheesy. I couldn't help wondering why many of the tourists were portrayed as complete nincompoops. I know there are a lot of idiot tourists out there but this was a bit too much.Anyway, the story is about this Greek/American tour guide who leads a bunch of tourists on a Greek sightseeing. The tourists are bored with the sightseeing & history and will rather buy t-shirts and eat ice cream.This movie had the potential to be a whole lot better.

Overall this is pleasant to watch and more often funny than not. There are laugh out loud moments every few minutes or so. Some of the jokes in between are a little strained and fall flat but generally it is consistent from beginning to end. A little dialog could have been tightened and some scenes were a bit contrived like the way the leads started to become attracted to each other.The lead actress Nia is pleasant - she isn't corny as could be the case given some silly lines. Her romantic lead Alexis is just a bit on the plain side for a romantic comedy.Scenery is great.The supporting cast eg Dreyfus is good but a bit under utilised they don't have too many good lines after a while.