Watch My Life in Ruins For Free

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is what Nia Vardalos does best. Aside from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" she hasn't really done a lot of work that's noteworthy. I did, however, quite like her in that movie. "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 movie follows one of her tourist trips. The tourists she leads are mostly exaggerated caricatures - a boring salesman, the ugly Americans, the divorced and ready for action women, the depressed teenager, the snooty Brits and the fun-loving if often incomprehensible Australians. There's even a caricature of the overly polite Canadians who are travelling in the other group led by Georgia's rival. The tourists - much to Georgia's frustration - have no interest in Greek history or culture, but want nothing more than to do shopping trips to pick up souvenirs, buy ice cream and go to the beach. Georgia is lost and alone and lonely in Greece, with an empty and meaningless life. But the potential for romance develops during this trip.Co-starring in this is the always reliable Richard Dreyfuss as Irv, an American widower also a bit lost and lonely. After a rough start, he and Georgia develop a friendship and he becomes the old sage, teaching her a bit about life and love, and even becoming the voice of the oracle at the Temple of Delphi during the tour.There's nothing deep here, and it's not brilliant. It's just a pleasant and amusing (and at times quite funny) movie. Although Georgia's tourist group may not be interested, there are some wonderful shots of some of the ancient Greek ruins. There's nothing wrong with this. It's just what Nia Vardalos seems to do best. (7/10)

This Big Fat Greek Tragedy is the most embarrassing thing to come out of the Eastern Mediterrranean since Prince Philip. Turgid and sappy, it's bad enough to make you smash plates over your own head. It's like "Mamma Mia!" without the songs, wit and charm, or "Shirley Valentine" after a full frontal lobotomy. 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. It's a bit like ouzo: seems like fun at the time but you'll no doubt regret it in the morning.

Nia Vardalos is Georgia, an American come back to Greece to be a tour guide. However, she gets the loud obnoxious tourists, and she really has no personality to interact with them.Richard Dreyfuss is a widower who laughs on the outside, but is hurting badly inside. He tries to breath some life into Georgia.Greek actor Alexis Georgoulis provides the love interest.It has it's moments. With a group as diverse as hers, it provides a lot of laughs. It's not a great movie, but it is entertaining.Boy, Vardalos has some great teeth. She shows them constantly. However, the Spanish divorcées looking for action, show more interesting assets.

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!