Meet the Fockers (Movie Review)
Possibly the best comedy of 2004, Meet The Fockers is a fun and humorous marathon. Screenwriters Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke (who should have received Oscars for their impeccable handwriting on Meet The Parents) deliver another blockbuster manuscript. But, like its predecessor, Meet The Fockers wouldn’t be the comedic masterpiece it is without the on-screen chemistry of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.
Stiller, the son of comedian Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld & King Of Queens), is a comedic genius in his own right and has recently dominated the Hollywood box office with a string of hit spoof comedies including There’s Something About Mary (1998), Meet The Padres (2000), Zoolander (2001), Along Came Polly (2004), and Dodgeball (2004). De Niro, on the other hand, transitions from the less serious roles of his early career into the comedy genre with an ease fully indicative of his enormous talent. Previous comedic roles in Wag The Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999) and Meet The Parents (2000) prepared moviegoers for the veteran actor’s one-liners. Add Dustin Hoffman (who’s also surprisingly funny) to the mix, and Meet The Fockers becomes one of those rare comedies that moviegoers will want to watch over and over again…
Meet The Fockers follows the ongoing struggles of Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller), a male nurse whose future father-in-law, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), is an endless source of torment. Jack, a retired CIA agent, is paranoid and controlling, and Greg’s previous attempts to win Jack’s affections have always fallen short. Now, Greg’s life problems are multiplied by the imminent first meeting between his future in-laws and his “biological parents”.
Traveling by RV, Greg, his fiancée Pam (Teri Polo), and the rest of the Byrnes family arrive in Florida, where the free-loving, hippie lifestyle of Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz Fockers (Barbra Streisand) contrasts sharply with Jack’s serious façade. . Throughout the visit, Greg works overtime to keep Jack from finding out about his mother’s booming sex therapy business, his own juvenile indiscretion with the family maid, and his inability to supervise Jack. Jr. not even one afternoon. When Jack gets the idea that Greg had a child in high school, he administers the truth serum to him, setting off a series of events that are sure to make even the most ardent critic of ridiculous, teen movies (and this one) one of them) burst out laughing…
Meet The Fockers is a rarity in that it’s a sequel to a fairly successful movie that manages to live up to the original’s reputation. Although Meet The Parents is probably the best movie, Meet The Fockers is a truly funny comedy in its own right. Directed by Jay Roach (director of the Austin Powers franchise), Meet The Fockers is a highly entertaining comedy that deploys all the tricks of the trade: slapstick, toilet humor, one-liners, the classic “fish out of water”, sequences and situational mood. It is by no means a cinematic classic worthy of artistic awards and praise from sophisticated critics. But he keeps his promise. It promises to make you laugh, and accomplishes that task with relative ease…