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My Life in Ruins

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My Life in Ruins (2009)

June. 05,2009
|
5.9
|
PG-13
| Comedy Romance
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A Greek tour guide named Georgia attempts to recapture her kefi (Greek for mojo) by guiding a ragtag group of tourists around Greece and showing them the beauty of her native land. Along the way, she manages to open their eyes to the wonders of an exotic foreign land while beginning to see the world through a new set of eyes in the process.

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Reviews

AniInterview
2009/06/05

Sorry, this movie sucks

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Smartorhypo
2009/06/06

Highly Overrated But Still Good

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WillSushyMedia
2009/06/07

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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Geraldine
2009/06/08

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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Paul Papadopoulos
2009/06/09

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).

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luannt1211
2009/06/10

I watched this film the first time when I was in my classroom. My teacher showed I and my classmates a lot of discs and asked which one we preferred. We were quite selective, I guess, to choose because we didn't know a film before. Luckily, we picked this film and I'm so glad that we did that. Well, how to say... 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.

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phd_travel
2009/06/11

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.

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DICK STEEL
2009/06/12

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's been some five years since I last enrolled myself into a tour group to discover far out places, and the premise of the film brought back some of these memories, good and bad. And in some ways the filmmakers hit the concept right in the head, given how we normally perceive strangers we met for the first time through a pigeonhole concept, classifying them based on prejudices or little nuances that we pick up, and nickname them after.The film in that way, mirrors real life experiences from tours (as far as I'm concerned with my personal participation) and how the tourists slow grow from strangers to friends who have forged strong bonds, some even after the parting of ways. 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. Being rated consistently as an average performer as compared to her irritating peer, it seems that she's in for yet another tough time with a motley crew of tourists, and paired by with a terribly bearded bus driver Poupi (Alexis Georgoulis). Using her expertise knowledge to good but boring use, she constantly finds it a challenge to connect with her charges, until the joker of the group Irv (Richard Dreyfuss) begins to impart some words of wisdom to help her out. Frankly speaking if I were on a tour, I'd appreciate such a tour guide very much, rather than someone who brings you to various shops all the time for kickbacks in the form of commissions earned when you shop at their preferred outlets. It's a romantic story as Georgia soon finds love in the unlikeliest of persons, and with her new found optimism, begins to address the issues of those in her tour bus as they build on their camaraderie, culminating in the hilarious solving of their bus's air conditioning problem. Expect plenty of light comedy being peppered throughout the film, especially since it plays on the abilities and nature of its characters, such as the kleptomaniac, and the pair of divorced friends. Some jokes aren't politically correct, and look out for Vardalos' real life husband playing a sleazy hotel employee trying to proposition her.Unfortunately most of the backdrops, save for the more famous Greek monuments, were shot in Spain instead of in Greece. It would have been quite the Greece-101 for those who have not visited the country before, but alas this is not the film. But what it is though, is a reminiscing look back into the days when anyone had gone on a tour with a group of strangers, and emerged with new found friends and experiences. Offhand I cannot think of any film that has this as a premise, and for that, I'd say to give this film a chance. After all, it stars the ever-chirpy Nia Vardalos, and it's about time I visit her fat Greek wedding!

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