InsidePulse Review: Meet the Fockers

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Directed by Jay Roach. Running time: 1:40. MPAA rating: PG-13 (for crude and sexual humor, language and a brief drug reference).

Starring:

Robert De Niro …. Jack Byrnes
Ben Stiller …. Greg Focker
Dustin Hoffman …. Bernie Focker
Barbra Streisand …. Roz Focker
Blythe Danner …. Dina Byrnes
Teri Polo …. Pam Byrnes
Spencer Pickren …. Little Jack
Bradley Pickren …. Little Jack

Meet the Parents was first released in 2000. Four years is a lot time to wait for a sequel. Take everything one knows about the difficulties sequels face and then add in the fact that a decent to long amount of time has gone by, and speculation toward the film would be well founded. Thankfully, while some things feel very familiar, Meet the Fockers is a funny little sequel to a great comedy.

The film begins with Gaylord, AKA Greg, Focker (Stiller) planning another trip, this time with his fiance Pam (Polo). Both are scheduled to spend another week with Pam’s parents, Jack and Dina Byrnes (De Niro and Danner) in New York. This time, however, all four will then head south to Miami, to meet up with, and get to know, Greg’s parents. Roz and Bernie Focker (Hoffman and Streisand) are thrilled to see their son and finally meet their future extended family. Unfortunately for everyone involved, once everyone gets settled in, the tremendous differences in lifestyle between Byrnes and Focker begin to really show through. Can Greg and Pam’s engagement survive until marriage, or will their families wind up pulling them apart?

To those who know and love the first film, this premise might a bit more than familiar. And it should. It needs to be clarified now that Jay Roach and company knew they had a hit on their hands, and, as the old saying goes, don’t fix what ain’t broken. Instead, the main plot is retained, but with significant changes so that the movie exists as it’s own being. The chemistry really makes this film work as well as it does. The casting of Hoffman and Streisand is about as perfect as you can get in a film like this. The first film asked the question, “Who would name their son Gaylord?” Well, this film answers it and then some. The Fockers as so hilarious that often times it’s disappointing when they aren’t on screen.

Everyone plays off each other well, as well as they did in the first film. But the focus of the Fockers is really apparent after the first twenty minutes. This is Stiller’s, Hoffman’s and Streisand’s film; the focus is on them and how everyone reacts to, or with, them. Greg is embarrassed by his parents. While he loves them and knows they love him (the genuine showcasing of love in this film is sensational, too) their constant need to disclose everything about him and his life becomes overwhelming for him. He is still trying his hardest to impress ex-CIA Jack, and his parent’s do a lot more to harm him than help.

And speaking of Jack, the on-screen magic of Hoffman and De Niro needs to be seen to be appreciated. These guys are absolutely hillarious together. Jack is looking for every little flaw he can find with these people, while Roz is just looking for hugs and a new friend. Streisand is great too; one has a very hard time picturing anyone else doing half as good a job as she did with this role. There were reports of dissention on the set, specifically between her and Hoffman, but you would never know it. They make a perfect pair on-screen, playing husband and wife with such skill that all of the emotion, all of the principles, felt incredibly real. Unfortunately, Dina and Pam are practically forgotten about halfway through. Both are given decent sub-plots, but nothing nearly as great as what the rest of the cast does.

This is a funny film. Sometimes it is a VERY funny film. But, like so many other recent films, this fails to achieve true greatness (At least in the sense of the original) for small yet important reasons. This film is not original. A lot of what appears in this film is re-done from the first. Fans of the first will feel strong deja-vu with the dinner scene, the football game, the animals (The Byrnes have a cat, so the Fockers have a dog), and a little surprise cameo at the end. Thankfully, the performances in this are great, and they alone save the film from being redundant and rehashed. Also, this film will not help Stiller in the critics sense – it is still that There’s Something About Mary role that he has been playing for so long now.