In Japan, there is a great deal of pressure to not just be accepted as part of the team, but you have to work hard to better the team (and your standing aboard it). Japan has struggled with a high suicide rate from pressures to excel academically and in business. Individuality is frowned upon in Japanese culture. If you are going to make waves, you have to do it through the many layers of the system.

Some of it kind of reminds me of the "good ol' boys network" we have screwing up business in America, except it just seems to work on a more sophisticated and subtle level. And things can crash. The current good old boys network scandals with Enron, Worldcom and others remind me of the Japanese banking scandals of years before.

-Claude

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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
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

I finally had to check this out to see for myself what all the "buzz" is about. Some observations... This was a near-sellout crowd, despite the fact that MBFGW has been showing in Eugene now almost since it first came out (May?) (it started at the Bijou art house, then Cinemark picked it up a couple weeks ago). The majority of the audience seemed to be made up of middle-age or older people who rarely go to movies. The crowd REALLY enjoyed this -- the laughter was almost non-stop and sometimes you couldn't hear the next line or 2 of dialog over the laughing. The word-of-mouth on this movie has to be incredibly strong, and it seems to be drawing a crowd that probably doesn't much appreciate most of the more "contemporary" comedies aimed at younger audiences. In other words, the film targets an audience that's probably starved for product like this.

I enjoyed it. It's a nice little film with no special effects, no big name stars, minimal budget, yet it works because you like & identify with the characters. Very simple. I imagine all the big studios are trying to figure out how to replicate this now, and we'll see a bunch of MBFGW knockoffs over the next year, and most of them won't have the heart or "magic" or whatever this movie has. Sometimes good shit just happens and there's no recipe you can use to duplicate it over and over. Congratulations to the makers of this movie on its success and to the theaters who've had good runs with it.

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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
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

My mom's full-blooded Sicilian, and I remember from my childhood the holiday gatherings being a lot like those seen in the movie. Even today, when an "outsider" joins in during a holiday meal, it can be quite overwhelming for them. To them, we are all shouting at each other. What they don't know is that he who shouts the loudest not only gets heard but is the "winner" of the discussion -- at least at that point in time. To an outsider, everyone comes across as rather rude, interrupting each other. To us, we are just having a normal conversation. While loud, it's not an indication of anger at all.

And if you wait for a pause in the conversation to get in your two-cent's worth, you'll be waiting for a very long time.

What? The movie is this successful because of "word of mouth"? Nooooo..... you can't sell a movie on that.

I am very sorry to differ with you but the majority of people who saw the movie with me about a month ago were at least in ther forties and older and way beyond the age of video games and Burger King tie ins. A lot of people in this age group are also not into surfing the net so I doubt very many were influenced by fancy websites promoting this film. Yes, older people do watch a lot of TV and if they first heard about how good "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING" is by a critic, this is another form of 'word of mouth' because unlike advertising, the critics were not paid to render a favorable opinion of the movie. The only way a video game and fast food restaurant promotion can influence a film's success is for the movie to go into wide distribution by a major studio. "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING"is a independent film and none of the majors showed any interest in releasing it. If this was the attitude of the major studios, what makes you think any fast food restaurant and video game producer would be interested in this film? If there are video games and fast food promos that are now tied in with "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING", it was only due to the success of the movie and not the other way around. The movie opened first in art houses and it was only due to the word of mouth from people who saw it first that had made me want to see this film. Yes, it was only due to people enjoying the film and spreading the good word that made "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING" a success.

-Claude

You got me!

I am wondering what all the studio heads are thinking when they realized they passed on a vey good thing with "MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING". At least Artisen Entertainment realized there was a lot of potential with "THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT" after the film did well at the Sundance Film Festival and ran with it and made millions!

-Claude

Reading Cinemas in Manville NJ got Greek Wedding back on 8/23. It's been playing in one of the giant-size (350+ seat) halls for its current run. This Friday night Greek Wedding drew 250+ to the 8:15 PM show: women, older couples, a good number of high school girls. Fun show, fun night!

Yes, we Jersey people can relate to all the big-haired women. "Jersey Girls" were known for big hair all through the 80's. Not only that, Greek Wedding works as a kind of "female empowerment" movie.

Yes, we Jersey people can relate to Dancing Zorba's. Greeks own most if not all the diners along the Jersey highways.

It doesn't hurt that Reading is the only theater playing Greek Wedding within a 30-minute drive from Manville.

Claude: Greek Wedding was co-financed by HBO -- a division of AOL Time Warner. Also, Lions Gate once had the worldwide theatrical rights to Greek Wedding but gave them back because Lions Gate doesn't have the TV/video rights (HBO does).

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