"Meet the Fockers" is a desperately unfunny, often gut-wrenching film. It usually wallows in it's badness, happy in it's mediocrity. Like "Ocean's 12," this is a film where the actors spent all of their time having fun instead of making a good movie...after all, this will be a hit no matter what.

This is the long-awaited sequel to semi comic masterpiece "Meet the Parents." It never comes close to matching the hilarity of the original, as my first paragraph implies. Director Jay Roach has grown lazy, and Ben Stiller is growing a bit tiresome. As the title suggests, we now get to meet the parents of Gaylord "Greg" Focker, who awkwardly tangled with his girlfriend's father George (Robert DeNiro) in the first outing. Greg's constant attempts to impress George were hilarious because they always went wrong in the worst possible way. The dialogue between the two of them was uproarious because it was the eager and submissive Greg VS the alert and CIA trained George. Any of the intelligence that went into the first film was not involved in crafting this sequel.

When your film opens with a dirty joke, followed by a poop joke, followed by a series of random scenes that have nothing to do anything, you know you have a problem. You know you have a problem when most of the "humor" is centered around a baby who is only irritating and Robert DeNiro wearing a fake woman's breast (don't ask). You know you have a problem when the film resorts to dog-humping jokes. You know you have a problem when a chihuahua is flushed down a toilet. You know you have a problem... You get the point. It really is a shame considering the cast involved. DeNiro is, well, Robert DeNiro, and does all that he can with his role. He was funny the first time because he was a CIA agent who used his skill against Greg, but did it in a subdued way. George may have been a bit of an ass, but he had clear motivation. Here he's been reduced to a boring cliche with futuristic gadgetry appropriate to a James Bond movie...and he runs around with a fake breast strapped on. Ben Stiller really is a very funny man, but in all honesty, I'm getting a little tired of him. In one year: "Along Came Polly," "Dodgeball," "Envy," "Starsky and Hutch," etc. He needs to take a year off. Blythe Danner and Teri Polo both play their roles as best as they can, but the characters make lost every dimension and only exist to react to what the others do.

With the original cast out of commission, will the Fockers themselves offer anything interesting? Nope. I couldn't wait to see the people who would have actually named their kid Gaylord Focker. It had to be someone truly bizarre and "out there." The Fockers themselves are not that strange, only highly eccentric liberals. What is the movie trying to say: Republicans and cold and hard to get-along-with folks while Liberals are zany people who name their kids Gaylord and loudly talk about sex? For all I know, maybe this is true, but I doubt it.

As for the actors, Barbara Streisand does absolutely nothing with her character, and becomes more annoying than funny. Hoffman fairs much better and even got me to smile a few times, but the writing is simply not funny. I saved this film from failing because of a single funny scene where a drugged Ben Stiller rants on a stage to his family reunion and the unexpected appearance of Owen Wilson, who only has to appear on screen with Stiller to get a laugh from me.

If you have any respect for the intelligent and zany laughs of the original, skip this one. If you want a bunch of sophomoric sex and fart jokes, but all means, check this out.

© Written by Jacob Hall

How We Rated This Film TC Candler - B- Richard Propes - C+ Jacob Hall - C-

TC Candler's Comment

n/a

Richard Propes' Comment

"Meet the Fockers" tries SOOOOOO hard to be a funny film that it becomes painful at times to watch it unfold. Whereas the original film featured unexpected twists, original setups and a balanced spirit this film is remarkably predictable, often forced and creates such an obvious difference between the two in-law couples that it becomes nearly impossible to just let go and surrender to the humor.

Of course, this film is the sequel to "Meet the Parents," a classic comedy hit largely due to the comic teaming of Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller and their unique, but hilarious chemistry. That film was loaded with over-the-top but hilarious comic set-ups that came directly out of the scenes going on and from the relationships we were watching. This film, however, seems uncertain whether it wants to be a film with great heart, a values lesson, a slapstick comedy or a light romantic comedy. It ends up never really fully becoming any of these and, while still getting quite a few laughs, I found myself leaving the theater disappointed and struggling to remember any of what I had considered funny just a few hours earlier.