Name : Geoff Berkshire / Alias : Variety
This 14-years-later sequel is every bit as sitcom-ish and saccharine as its predecessor, but considerably less distinctive.

Name : Tirdad Derakhshani / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Predictable, tired, formulaic, it makes up for its lack of originality with a bigger budget, louder jokes, louder costumes, and louder music.

Name : Randy Cordova / Alias : Arizona Republic
The movie wheezes about, with actors offering spit takes (Vardalos) and getting hit in the head with volleyballs (Vardalos again). When those moments don't elicit laughs, you are left with awkward silences that just hang in the air. That happens a lot .

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
It shows us a world where every family problem can be fixed by hugging or buttering garlic bread. There's certainly an audience for that. All others, be warned.

Name : Rebecca Keegan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
The sequel is a little like a bear hug from a beloved old relative - the embrace is too tight, the perfume is too strong, but ultimately it still leaves you feeling good inside.

Name : Kate Lloyd / Alias : Time Out
Feels like you're watching an entire season of Modern Family in fast-forward

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Gags get piled upon gags with relentless frenzy and results that are overbearing rather than uproarious. You can rely on every character to behave the exactly the same way every time, regardless of the situation, and that way is usually obnoxious.

Name : Jesse Hassenger / Alias : AV Club
Jones has limited ideas about funny staging. His go-to move is mashing two to 10 people together into an awkward scrum, then cutting to Vardalos or Paris watching with wide-eyed discomfort.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
In truth, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" is an excruciating grind, just scene after scene of people creating disturbance over tiny matters, fighting over nothing, and making Toula clean up after them.

Name : David Ehrlich / Alias : Slate
I'm sure there are knowing smiles of recognition that are reserved here for people raised in traditional Greek families, but it's hard to feel like you're missing any of the jokes when every punch line is practically written out on cue cards.

Name : Tim Cogshell / Alias : TheWrap
It's sweet, just like the original movie. It was faint praise then, and it still is.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Some elements are even broader while a couple, welcomely, are emotionally truer to life. If you appreciated the first movie's sweetness, then you'll likely be charmed enough.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
It's understandable that creator/writer Nia Vardalos would come back for seconds with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" . but 14 years later, this reunion of cuddly-but-tiresome stereotypes makes you wish she'd left well enough alone.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Vardalos is wonderful, and 88-year-old Michael Constantine casually pockets every scene he's in.

Name : Devan Coggan / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
A tired and unnecessary retread that not even a healthy spritz of Windex can cure.

Name : Joe Dziemianowicz / Alias : New York Daily News
"My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" is like baklava. It's light, sweet and nutty. But after indulging you might ask yourself, "Did I really need that?"

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
Old jokes and little plot, but the charming original cast almost compensates.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
What we're left with is something that recalls Crocodile Dundee in L.A. - the misbegotten notion that bringing back characters long past their sell-by date is a good idea.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
How about we push back from the table and go home? This may be Vardalos' all-you-can-eat Greek buffet, but you know what? This really is all I can eat.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
Those who loved the original should at least like the sequel, which remarkably has reunited all of the players from the oversized cast.

Name : Liz Braun / Alias : Toronto Sun
The movie has Andrea Martin, who returns as bossy Aunt Voula, sometimes dispensing her gonzo brand of sexual advice and sometimes confiding her list of bizarre medical curiosities. She alone may be worth the price of admission.

Name : Frank Scheck / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Vardalos and Corbett display the relaxed romantic chemistry that made them so endearing to audiences in the first film.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
With so many warmed-over jokes, you'd think that the delivery would at least be on point. But everything, including the timing, feels off.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : Village Voice
It's a nice movie. Not a good one, or a well-made one, or a smart one, but a nice one.

Name : Jeannette Catsoulis / Alias : New York Times
Even those who have spent the last 14 years pining for a sequel to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - by most accounts, the highest-grossing American romantic comedy - will rue that longing when they experience "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2."

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
What once bubbled up from a sincere love of Greek family has now congealed into the all-too-familiar Hollywood tale of milking a cash cow until it cries for mercy.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
Pass the baklava.

Name : Mara Reinstein / Alias : Us Weekly
All the plots are blah sitcom material, at best - and there's a reason why Vardalos' CBS spinoff, My Big Fat Greek Life, lasted all of seven episodes back in 2003.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
Vardalos has created a community of characters and players so likable, it seems almost mean to criticize - like picking on one's own annoying but beloved relatives.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
It's a big fat Greek dud.

Name : Leah Pickett / Alias : Chicago Reader
This unnecessary sequel reunites most of the cast from the 2002 indie sensation and then lazily recycles its narrative, score, themes, catchphrases, and sight gags almost beat for beat.

Name : Scott Tobias / Alias : NPR
It's comforting to break bread in Vardalos' cheery Chicago enclave again, even if you're being served yesterday's dinner out of the microwave.

Name : Katharine Pushkar / Alias : New York Daily News
Deep - deep! - in this impenetrable block of ice is an actual, OK story. But the patience it takes to get to it? The return on investment just isn't there.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Like a car mirror warning that objects may be closer than they appear, director Claudia Llosa's chilly New Age drama gives off a deceptive sense of depth.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
For all its brooding atmosphere and visual poeticism, the film offers a perspective on the lives of its characters that feels narrow and superficial.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
The truth is elusive, and so is Aloft. Maybe viewers will figure it out cleaner than this reviewer did. And maybe the best answers aren't served on platters.

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
One problem with "Aloft" is that the audience is never made to care about Ivan. All we know is that he's repellent.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
The story doesn't add up to much, but the stark natural imagery and frank discussions of spiritual longing leave strong impressions.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Llosa's film pushes its enigmatic and quietly brooding qualities to the point that it's inaccessible, despite some mildly intriguing spiritual story elements and skilled performances .

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
The majority of the film strives for ethereal lyricism but the melodrama of these lives never proves strong enough to anchor any real emotional connection.

Name : Michael Nordine / Alias : Village Voice
Ambitious aesthetics aren't matched by Llosa's overly opaque approach; what's meant to seem artfully understated most often results in confusion over basic details.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
"Adrift" is a more fitting title for this unmoored and glacially paced star vehicle, which prizes exasperating inscrutability over effective storytelling.

Name : Bruce Demara / Alias : Toronto Star
It's a meditative and intriguing tale filled with mystical imagery that never reveals all of its secrets. That's a good thing.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
The characters in "Aloft" seem to float over their strong passions, like birds riding on columns of air, without ever alighting.

Name : Rebecca Keegan / Alias : Los Angeles Times
"Aloft" sets up a compelling mystery - how could a loving mother abandon her son? - and then, frustratingly, refuses to solve it.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Llosa's tableaus are also striking - there is a suggestion here that this is an impoverished, futuristic wasteland - but their back story is elusive to the point of meaninglessness.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
Aloft is ultimately a movie about our need to keep moving and searching. And at times, it's quite a lovely one.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
The entire flashback structure is building toward one of those twist endings that the characters would already know, but that's being deliberately withheld from the audience in an attempt at suspense.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Some movies practically dare you to give up. "Aloft" is a beautifully shot, frustratingly vague and deeply ponderous mystery/spiritual journey about terminally unhappy souls.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
Even those incapable of getting ahead of the film's big reveal . will probably lose interest before all the cards are laid on the table. What's really been withheld, in this dreary drag of a movie, is a reason to care.