Meet the Fockers (Movie Review)

Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro star in this sequel to “Meet the Parents”. This time around, Greg Focker (played by Stiller) and his fiancée Pam Byrnes (played by Teri Polo) take her parents to meet Greg’s family for the first time. The Fockers, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand, are quite different from Pam’s parents. Mrs. Focker teaches “sex improvement” classes to senior citizens and Mr. Focker does weird tae bo stuff in the front yard…when he’s not trying to hump Greg’s mom. Oh yeah…and he openly makes fun of the CIA, which obviously does not go over well with Greg’s future father in law (and former CIA agent). This is pretty much the premise for the entire movie…the uptight Byrnes clan vs. the hippie, free love Fockers…plus a lot of slapstick humor.

The film is not nearly as funny as the first movie. In fact, I was kind of disappointed….but not completely surprised, because I am not a fan of Streisand or Hoffman. There were a few parts that were laugh-out-loud funny, especially scenes involving the Byrnes grandchild, but overall the movie just seemed to drag. All of the elements were there to make it a funny movie, but it just didn’t work. It was almost like the writers and actors were trying too hard. But it has been a huge hit, so I’m sure we can look forward to “Merry Christmas, You Focker” or something like that. In the meantime, I recommend you see a cheap matinee showing of it or just wait for it to come out on DVD.