Film Review: Meet the Fockers

This is the sequel to the 2000 original Meet the Fockers, and is actually the same movie in all but name. Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) and Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) need to again Meet the Parents, but this time, it's Ben's hippy Floridian parents who come under Pam's father's scrutiny.

Unfortunately this represents all that epitomises lazy Hollywood. It's not enough that they've just remade "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Flight of the Phoenix" because they've run out of ideas: it just seems that if you hit paydirt, crank it out again. Meet the Fockers is no exception. For a starter, there's the same gags - so you can expect the same disasters: the inevitable awkward dinner, the dangerously misjudged sporting event, unfortunate pet mishaps, and countless "focker" puns.

But where in Meet the Parents, everything started ok (ish), but then started getting slowly and slowly more out of hand, the sequel needs to set the scene pretty quickly to enable the same jokes. So this time the central characters are more extreme than ever, and they hate each other again. Ben Stiller's father-in-law-to-be Jack Byrnes doesn't just use spy cameras in this movie - oh no - this time, he has customised an RV (mobile home) with a whole set of surveillance equipment that the Pentagon would be proud of. In this way Robert de Niro plays a complete caricature - it just pains me, knowing the greatness he has achieved before to see him ham a comedy role in this way.

That's not the say the movie is without merit. Formulas are constructed around success, after all. It's still quite funny in parts, and the general hapless chaos is Laurel & Hardy slapstick updated for the Playstation generation. Dustin Hoffman is great fun, Barbara Streisand (despite my prior reservations) is quite natural, and of course Ben Stiller handles the slightly bemused out-of-control son role quite well. The performances help the movie when it really needs it. The fact that Jack Byrnes learns a little something about himself and his marriage add the tiniest bit of contour to his otherwise 2 dimensional character. Plus there's the added bonus of Little Jack, Pam's niece, who has the best scene of all.

The visual gags keep coming quick and fast, but it is only a snigger movie, whereas the first one made me laugh out loud. No new ground, but have a few beers, go see it, and while you'll laugh, forget about your life, and work through a large popcorn bucket and a litre of coke, you won't help but leave a little disappointed. 6/10