My Life in Ruins

Plot synopsis:
Georgia (Nia Vardalos) is a Greek American teacher who came to Greece to teach at a local college about Classic Greece. However, budget cuts caused her to be laid off and forced her to get a job as tour guide. She believes she has hit rock bottom when she loses her passion in everything. Informed by her boss, Maria (Bernice Stegers), that she ranks poorly as a guide because the tourists think she's boring, Georgia finds herself leading a tour around Greece with an assorted group of misfit tourists whom she believes is a failure since they seem to care more about buying T-shirts than learning about history and culture. Instead, she wishes to have a good group of Canadian tourists whom seems to be more engaged in history and culture than wanting to go shopping for souvenirs and hang out at the beach. Maria disagrees with Georgia's assessment, informing her that they are more interested in Nico (Alistair McGowan), a rival male tour guide also working for Maria because he's engaging in tours. As Georgia's tour departs, her driver is injured in an accident and is replaced by another driver, Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis).
In a clash of personalities and cultures, everything seems to go wrong and Georgia is on the verge of quitting as she can't connect with the group to get them to appreciate Greece and its culture. This is made worse when she voices her disgust with Maria for favoring Nico over her in letting his group stay in better hotels than her group. After being ignored again, Georgia decides to send a letter to inform her that she's quitting at the end of her tour and Maria can find another tour guide more tolerant to her and Nico.
One day, an older traveller named Irv Gideon (Richard Dreyfuss), helps Georgia see why she can't connect with the group: she finds them annoying and is bored with her current job. Therefore, he shows her how to have fun and teach her how to be more engaging to the tourists. This helps Georgia learn more about the current group of tourists she has and open her eyes to the different places where they come from. In doing so, she also teaches them the origins of the Olympic Games, which they take genuine interest in. While they become more immersed in Greek culture, Poupi begins to show interest in Georgia. However, Georgia's antics distract him while driving, and he narrowly avoids causing an accident on the road. At the hotel they're staying at, Georgia's female members of her group manages to stall a hurt Nico as Georgia, Irv and Poupi secretly sabotage his tour bus by stealing the air conditioning from it to install in her own bus. As the group begins to enjoy themselves at the beach, Irv becomes sick and they take him to the hospital. Georgia is unsure if she should continue and is concerned for Irv's health until Poupi encourages her to do so.
During her group's tour of the Parthenon, Georgia tells them why she likes coming there because at the right time, she could feel the wind from the ruins. While his own group looks around, Nico confronts Georgia and her group. Georgia realizes she ended up with the better group when he reveals that without air conditioning on his tour bus, Nico got a serious headache from having to hear his group complaining the entire time and he never bothered getting to know them. When Nico openly insults his group in front of Georgia and her group by calling them Americans, the Canadians are offended by this and start trying to beat him up. Georgia and her group visit the hospital where Irv is recovering well. At night when the group is celebrating the farewell party at a Greek buffet, Maria confronts Georgia for the letter and convinces her to stay with a promise of a raise after she produces the review logs with good reviews with her current group of tourists. She even admitted that she was glad Nico quit since she never liked being around him and only tolerated Nico because she knew his parents very well. Georgia begins a relationship with Poupi.

Tags: entertaining

Review:
It's not easy to put people together and make a successful collaboration." You can almost feel the push and pull between the talented Nia Vardalos and writer Mike Reiss with this story of an American history professor – turned – travel guide to an annoying group of tourists.
Nia Vardolos is a Greek-American expatriate in Greece, overqualified and unhappy with her temporary job as a tour guide.
The supporting cast was also great, and their characters were so real and typical and funny that I felt like this was written about a tour bus I was once on.
Alexis G, the bus driver was like a modern Greek God, and I couldn't believe his talent as an actor actually matched his good looks.
Thanks to a tour passenger Irv (Richard Deyfuss) who takes on a guardian angel role and a sexy "ugly swan" bus driver (Alexis Georgoulis), Georgie begins to look at life on a whole new level.
I loved my BIG FAT Greek WEDDING and was excited to see this new movie made by some of the same people and with Nia Vardalos as the star.
I think a lot of people can identify with feeling "out of whack" with life situations and it was enjoyable to live vicariously through Nia's character Georgia as she made breakthroughs in her love life and career.
In what amounts to be a sitcom remake of 1969's "If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium", a farce that depicted the whirlwind antics of an American tour group in Europe, this film is even more dependent on stock characters and situations that appear transported from an Eisenhower-era story.
Seven years after her unexpected success with "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding", star Nia Vardalos looks slimmer and more glamorous than she did in her debut, yet she portrays almost the same self-defeating character as Georgia, a history professor who came to Greece to teach but ends up leading tourists around its ancient ruins.
Disappointed with the cards life has dealt to her, she is uptight about her job much to the consternation of her group who want only to have fun rather than an education on ancient Greece.Directed by Donald Petrie ("Miss Congeniality") and written by Mike Reiss (episodes of "The Simpsons") in an extremely slapdash fashion, the story focuses on how Georgia has lost her passion for life (called "kefi" in Greek) and how it takes the motley tour group and her attraction to a studly bus driver named Poupi to rediscover it.
As Poupi, hunky Greek actor Alexis Georgoulis looks initially like Grizzly Adams, but love transforms him into smoldering eye candy as the movie progresses, which is really the whole point of his role.
Surprisingly, the most entertaining commentary is provided by Reiss, a genuine comedy writer who convinces us that the story is based on his real-life experiences as part of a tour group.
Alas, not having any doubts about her hidden talents, her latest film will not add anything to her resume."My Life in Ruins", directed by Daniel Petrie, is a movie full of clichés.
I thoroughly enjoyed this movie which was everything I expected and wanted it to be and is one of the better romantic comedies I have seen in the last few years.
Stunning scenes of Greece, quirky likable characters (especially Richard Dreyfuss as Irv), the gorgeous Alexis Georgoulis, and the stunning Nia Vardalos who had great chemistry together.
However, the story-line and much of the dialogue is replete with cliché and stereotype.If you're a resident of Greece simply looking for 90 minutes of escape or if you're a tourist or would-be visitor to the country, there's enough in this movie to amuse, but if you demand a bit more from a film, then all this one has to offer is Richard Dreyfus's considerable wisdom and life-experience.
I was really excited to see this movie after having loved My Big Fat Greek Wedding for so long.
It's directed by and starring the lady who also made My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and if you liked that movie, it's safe to say that you'll love this one.
Nia Vardalos' "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a pleasant comedy, nothing special but at least there were some successful puns and originality.
The supporting cast is enjoyable though (all types of travelers i have seen visiting my country in a somewhat overreacting depiction,the creepy bus driver who falls for Vardalos) and of course Richard Dreyfuss is the lead of them all delivering a hilarious performance & the best lines of the film while doing some Greek sightseeing at the same time.
The beautiful Greek surroundings will definitely be a good reason for the viewer to watch the film & even if he has no plans to visit my country he might change his mind soon.
This a comedy that shows many examples why comedy should not be like this film.Georgia (Nia Vardalos), an out of luck woman working in Greece as a tour guide unexpectedly finds love with a bearded bus driver named Poupi (pronounced Poopie in English) and friendship with an Jewish American widower, Iriv (Richard Dreyfuss).
Like Iriv, every non-Greek characters are embarrassingly stereotyped for example, an Australian couple with sickening accents and always have a can of Fosters beer every time they appear, a snobby British couple with a bratty teenage daughter, a man from Miami in his 20s who easily reminds of you of a party fan from the 1990s and more stereotyped characters.I haven't seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding but i heard it was a sleeper hit and Nia received an Academy Award nomination for her writing should have written this instead of former Simpsons writer, Mike Reiss.I only liked one joke where the Miami man received a shirt from another tourist that says 'I love Greece' in Greek language but later, he was hanging out with two Greek men and Georgia alerted him that the shirt actually says 'Enter at Rear', revealing that the Greek men are stereotypically gay.I don't mind comedies that are meant to be fun and and not serious like Scary Movie or Red Dog (it looks stereotyped but its accurate since its set in the 70s so don't complain) but using the majority of the film with stereotypes isn't the answer to it.
So if you want an in-depth review, look elsewhere.I haven't seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but I have seen a lot of romantic comedies, and I can tell you right now that My Life in Ruins has no originality.
It was a fun movie; I could recognize all the characters and even though I have never taken a bus tour, I felt that the people and situations were real enough that I could easily relate to them.
But I found this movie entertaining, yeah at times it was predicable, but still was entertaining, not the best, but not the worst.Nia Vardalos is charming in her role, yeah she does not get high laughs, but she plays a character that is likable and you pretty much feel for.
because it is the film of Nia Vardalos, saving many scenes, it is occasion for Richard Dreyfuss to give a lovely character and , for viewer, it is a modest opportunity to meet a sketch of Greece, a sort of love story and the effort of team to do reasonable film about vacation and its people.
The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was because of lovely Nia Vardalos.
But I must admit the movie was much better than I expected.The story was about a tour guide in Greece who doesn't have a great reputation of her work.She always gets the average box checked as there are no lesser grade.
"A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner; but one that lies three thirds and uses a known truth to pass a thousand nothings with, should be once heard and thrice beaten." Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends WellGreece is much better than it appears in My Life in Ruins, an uneven romantic comedy starring Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
But Pedro Almodovar's favorite cinematographer, José Luis Alcaine, gets it right with shots of Vardalos, who looks vibrant and beautiful all the time, even when she's splattered with gelato and desperate for love.If you want a midlin' tour of Greece and a forced romantic comedy from the comfort of your Cineplex, you can't go too wrong on a summer night to see this film..
If you like groin kicking jokes, humiliating a women by ripping off her top, flatulence humor, and stuff that at one time was considered just plain rude, then avoid this film.In all honesty "My Life in Ruins" starts off a little corny, but it gets some sea-legs and gives the more mature minded audience a fairly good ride.
Such is the case of "My Life In Ruins".Yes, it's by the numbers and if you're the kind of person that finds the formula boring after 5 minutes then.....don't watch it.But sometimes you just go with it much like Nia Vardalos as her character of Georgia does.
Nia Vardalos, playing a professorial tour guide, is repeatedly informed, "You're not funny!" Those watching this movie will echo the sentiment as they slog their way through the clichés, predictable scenarios and failed attempts at humour.
Another Big Fat Greek Movie For Nia Vardalos.
"My Life In Ruins" isn't as frenetic as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," nor is it based on her own life, as the previous movie was, but like that movie it's an enjoyable and amusing comedy.
It has no real depth and you pretty much know how it's going to end up, but overall the journey is fun and it's a journey with mostly likable characters, although the whole thing is a bit mindless.Vardalos plays Georgia, an American classics professor who finds herself out of work and moves to Greece, where she ends up as perhaps the worst tour guide with the worst tour company you've ever seen.
This film which talks about a story of a tour guide named Georgia and her so-called last tour (but actually it turns out to be very different) is solemnly romantic, extremely funny and downright touching with some scenes of kind of "magic" from Greece God and Goddess.Though it doesn't have much meaning like the Oscar films or stuff like that, but this is a really helpful film for those (1) who wanna become tour guide or wanna go on a trip and (2) who wanna laugh..
for the 98% of the people who have never visited it, this movie comes as close to a tour of it as they can have without going.I'm can't imagine anybody not loving this film, at least not anybody with a sense of humor, and an eye for beauty and a brain that appreciates a good, well-structured plot and witty dialogue..
I still haven't checked out My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which actress Nia Vardalos is most famous for, but I suppose there's a fan in one of the distributors here to bring in yet another of her film this year after I Hate Valentine's Day. While it's nothing cerebral about the films she starred in (so far that I've watched), one cannot discount the fact that her sunshine demeanour has brought about some positive vibes and feel good factor to her movies, that it's somewhat of a delight to sit through her romantic comedies, thanks to sheer charisma.Written by Mike Reiss and directed by Donald Petrie, My Life in Ruins isn't as dire sounding as its title, touching upon a snapshot of a tour guides stint and rapport developed with a group of tourists under her charge.
It also plays on the stereotypes of typical tourists from various (Western) countries, such as the clueless American and the friendly Australians, though of course not every caricature gets painted in positive light, in a comical way not meant to offend.Nia Vardalos plays Georgia, an American-Greek expatriate in Greece whose temporary job while waiting for a college teaching appointment, is that of a tour guide in a dingy tour establishment.
After all, it stars the ever-chirpy Nia Vardalos, and it's about time I visit her fat Greek wedding!.
Okay I'm not known to like romantic comedies but this movie was actually pretty good.
Great for dates, girl's night, or people who've been on vacation to Greece (yes, that probably does affect my judgment...I've been on a Greek tour bus to many locations featured in the movie).
7 years ago, producers Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson obtained an unexpected economical success with the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a mediocre romantic comedy with ethnic "taste" and very limited creativity.Now, My Life in Ruins tries to reproduce the formula with the same main actress...and other clichés.My Life in Ruins is a bland and boring comedy with a cloying screenplay and a forced message about the magic of love.My Life in Ruins is the kind of film which is usually found on a plane trip or filling space in the daytime of some TV channels destined to women.Its superficial romance is absolutely inoffensive; its basic humor does not require any effort in order to be assimilated; and its ending is completely insipid.It is easy to note there was not much effort put in this movie.Two of the few good elements in this movie are the decent performances from Nia Vardalos and the great Richard Dreyfuss.The rest of the cast is anonymous.I do not recommend My Life in Ruins, because I found it to be a boring and insipid experience..
Nia Vardalos is Georgia, an American come back to Greece to be a tour guide.
This film is about an unemployed classical history professor who has to become a tour guide around Greece for a crappy tour company to make ends meet."My Life in Ruins" is funny and entertaining!
That's in addition to the always sunny weather and amazing scenery, which adds to the happy and vibrant feel of the film."My Life in Ruins" is an entertaining romantic comedy.
Georgia (Nia Vardalos) is an American living in Greece and working as a tour guide.
especially if one has worked in a tour operation.What I enjoy most about this movie is the way the characters are developed to move the story along.
Unless, we sell the film as "The star of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' finally goes to Greece." Speaking of Vardalos, did you ever see her film, "Connie and Carla?" I loved it!
I was thinking, how about if the two are male musicians who witness a mob hit and are forced to dress up as women and play in an all women's band to hide from the gangsters.REISS: You mean a remake of "Some Like It Hot?"EXEC: Some like it what?I don't know who to blame for the utterly bland "My Life in Ruins." Reiss, director Donald Petrie, actress Nia Vardalos or producers Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.Clearly, some of the same people involved in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002) - Vardalos, Wilson and Hanks - are back for this one.
But, whereas, that film, despite its obvious plot twists and turns, had a certain charm to it, this one is devoid of anything even remotely resembling charm, humor or originality.There's a moment about 20 minutes into "My Life in Ruins," when Dr. Tullen (Caroline Goodall - what is she doing in this awful picture?) tells Georgia (Vardalos), "You are not funny."She might as well have been saying that to Petrie and Reiss.
I realize her husband's making all the big movies and is the box-office name, but she is a terrific actress and, frankly, "My Life in Ruins" would have been substantially and substantively more enjoyable had the film been about Irv and Elinor.Vardalos might be looking to regain some of the "magic" of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." But she failed miserably with "Connie and Carla" (2004), a "Some Like It Hot" (1959) ripoff, and now comes this "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" (1969) ripoff.
But, Nia Vardalos (as the frustrated travel guide Georgia)and Alexis Georgoulis(as the quiet sensible driver Poupi Kakas)make did make a good-looking pair in this rom-com.After a long absence from the screen it seems, Richard Dreyfuss returns as Irv, a widower who can be both irritatingly funny and sensibly sensitive.
Georgia (Nia Vardalos) is a Greek-American who comes to Greece to work as a teacher but when they cut down the budget, she loses her job and finds another one as a tour guide.
I wonder if his wife Rita Wilson, being an American-Greek, has anything to do with it, like in the sweet romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding..
OK Greek romantic comedy after the first scenes pass and the movie gets going..
The other meaning is her guiding tours through the ancient ruins of Greece, and this movie is a slice of her life there.Nia Vardalos is not a star with a big drawing power, but her movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a big hit, partly because of the supporting cast and side stories.
"My Life in Ruins" (2009) is Nia Vardalos' attempt to recapture some of the magic of her debut film, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002).
"My Life in Ruins" is engaging and entertaining throughout its 90-minute length.Nia Vardalos plays Georgia, a Greek-American who is working in the land of her ancestors as a tour guide.
With tons of the Greek Background shown and tons of humor, My life in Ruins is a good film.
My Life in Ruins isn't quite what My Big fat Greek Wedding was, but I still thought it was a funny, funny film.
Nia Vardalos, who you might remember from My Big Fat Greek Wedding is in her new movie My Life in Ruins.
She plays Georgia, a travel guide who does a tour group around Greece.