Meet The Fockers Review

"Meet The Fockers" reviews

Movie

Meet The Fockers

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-03-20 21:08:24

Rating

2/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

The sequel Meet the Fockers is pretty much what you'd expect--mindless fluff with maybe a little less calamity than its predecessor, but a lot more schmaltz. Oy vey!

Story

OK, so we've met the Parents: Uptight ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), his preppy wife Dina (Blythe Danner) and their sweet daughter Pam (Teri Polo), who's marrying the adorable if slightly anxious male nurse Greg, aka Gaylord, Focker (Ben Stiller). Now it's time to Meet the Fockers, Greg's kooky but lovable parents, who soon threaten Greg's standing in Jack's coveted ''circle of trust.'' In the inevitable meeting of the in-laws, Jack is lead to believe Greg's dad, the effervescent Bernie (Dustin Hoffman), is a lawyer but finds out he became a stay-at-home dad to raise little Gaylord. Greg's mom, the outspoken Roz (Barbra Streisand), a ''doctor,'' is really a sex therapist for the elderly. Big, big problem. There's also incidents involving the Fockers' dog and the Byrneses' cat, and Jack's toddler grandson, some glue and a bottle of rum. Don't ask. At some point, Greg and Pam have just got to cut the umbilical cord and move on.

Acting

One thing you can say about the Fockers' cast--they sure do look like they're having fun. Stiller is back, doing the whole neurotic, accident-prone thing he does so well. There's one meltdown scene in which he bears his soul while under the influence of Sodium Pentathol (courtesy of Jack, of course). De Niro is once again playing the ''heavy,'' as the suspicious elder Byrnes--and is still pretty good at making you laugh. On the other hand, the wasted Danner and Polo stand around in the background looking appropriately appalled or sympathetic, depending on the moment. Hoffman and Streisand, however, are the true standouts. They liven up the proceedings just by the sheer nature of their spirited characters. For the first time in awhile, Hoffman's tendency to overact works as the bubbly Bernie, while the delightful Streisand, who's taken a break from acting for the past eight years, gets to tap into her zany yet grounded What's Up, Doc? persona we remember so well. Good times.

Direction

Meet the Parents director Jay Roach has a tough act to follow with Meet the Fockers. The original did surprisingly well at the box office, probably because audiences got a kick out of seeing funny guy Ben Stiller go head to head with the Goodfella himself, De Niro. But somehow the mishaps and miscommunications that made Parents so wacky seems to have been replaced with feel-good-about-your-family mush in Fockers. Jack, for example, is mostly up to his ''let's catch Greg in the act'' high jinks--until he sees the errors of his ways and gets in touch with his feelings. Huh? Granted, the moments of inspired hilarity are still entertaining, but the extra sentimentality doesn't really work as well, given what the younger fans of Parents have come to expect.

Bottom Line

Ben Stiller's younger fans may miss some of the Parents shenanigans, but Meet the Fockers still provides a requisite amount of chuckles without taxing your brain too much.

Movie

MEET THE FOCKERS

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2005-10-25 21:09:36

Provider

Review

There can't be many recent comedies that have brought together such a wealth of headline talent as Meet The Fockers. And it's to be hoped that none will waste it with such profligacy.

This sequel to the enjoyable Meet The Parents reunites Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Owen Wilson and introduces Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as the eponymous Fockers. That's three movie legends and two excellent modern comic stars in one movie. Can't fail, huh?

If only. Where the original hit exactly the right note for a mainstream comedy, balancing slapstick, toilet humour and the culture clash of Stiller's neurotic Jew and De Niro's upright WASP. But Meet The Fockers goes for every easy option imaginable - an excess of lav-laughs (literally), predictable collision of the respective in-laws and so many puns on the family name you long for the late Mary Whitehouse to come out swinging.

There are worse ways to spend a wet Sunday afternoon than with this movie, but for making a hash of such a great line-up Meet The Fockers beggars just one response. And unlike the film, we'll leave you to work it out yourself.