Film Reviews

Meet the Fockers

• Rating:
• Director: Jay Roach.
• Starring: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson.
• Details: US/ 120 mins/ (12PG).

Considering the pedigree of that cast, you'd be forgiven for expecting more from Meet the Fockers, a relatively engaging but rather one-dimensional sequel to the Meet the Parents. The plot's all in the title as Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) takes his fiancee (Teri Polo) and her uptight parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) to meet his folks. The catch, as you may suspect, is that the Fockers (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand) aren't exactly what the locals would call conventional. If it ain't broke, don't fix seems to be the mantra of the filmmakers here, and though the circumstances may have changed (ever so) slightly, the gags and ritual humiliation of Ben Stiller's character continues unabated. Predictably, the film doesn't manage to reproduce the crude energy of its predecessor and though the premise appears to have some potential, originality is an early casualty, abandoned in a steady stream of repetition. Of course some of the gags of Meet the Parents were worth repeating but the familiarity becomes a little overwhelming before Meet the Fockers finally gets to its destination.

Review by Garreth Murphy