Painfully unfunny sequel to 'Meet the Parents' aims low, hits the mark

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By Chris Garcia
American-Statesman Film Critic

Web posted: December 21, 2004

"Meet the Fockers," like its predecessor, lives and dies by audiences who still find the films' core pun -- as in, "Hey you, Focker!" -- a source of tireless hilarity. Focker is the surname of Ben Stiller's shambling character, a male nurse (cue laughter) whose full name is Gaylord Focker, which is its own stand-alone gut-buster in the universe of these movies.

I don't get it. This isn't exactly the arch pun names of "Dr. Strangelove." This is lowbrow laziness. And yet people howl every time the name is uttered. They could save a bundle by just saying it to themselves.

"Fockers" is the sequel to the 2000 farce "Meet the Parents," a limp, pandering comedy that, of course, was a smash hit. In both, Stiller goes to humiliating extremes to impress his psychotically militant father-in-law, triggering a series of domestic disasters invariably featuring bodily harm and bodily fluids.

The father-in-law is played by Robert De Niro, who, bless his Method heart, knows one comedic expression, a scowly grimace that was wearing thin well before "Analyze This." I would feel bad for him, but it looks like he really thinks it's funny.

"Meet the Fockers" improves on the first with the addition of Mr. and Mrs. Focker, played with reckless spark by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. This smells like a setup for head-pounding misery -- two slumming legends doing circumcision gags -- but the stars summon a sporting and relaxed good humor as free-spirited bohemians nursing hippie hangovers. Streisand muzzles her delusional egomania and embraces playfulness. Hoffman, as Stiller's touchy-feely daddy, twitches with lunacy, cutting an inspired swath through the material to outclass it.

In the original, Stiller met the parents of his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo -- more of an apparition than a character). Under the pitbull glare of De Niro's retired CIA operative, Stiller's hapless bundle of stammering anxiety didn't stand a chance. There, as here, his best intentions backfired, leaving him in various -- and messy -- states of deer-eyed mortification.

Somehow he passes the son-in-law trial, joining De Niro's exclusive "Circle of Trust," a status that is challenged in the new movie when it's time for Pam's parents to meet the Fockers. The quartet of future in-laws are like oil and bong water, until they're not and everyone hugs in a flurry of family fuzzies.

"Meet the Fockers" is that cellophane-wrapped sequel, retracing the original's mainstream virtues. It's a pageant of off-color, lamely arbitrary jokes meant to at once elicit cringes and laughs. Foreskin flies into the fondue! The cat flushes the dog down the toilet! De Niro straps on a fake breast to nurse the baby!

Yes, there's a baby. I didn't mention him because I still have no idea what he's doing in the movie. He breaks wind and says a naughty word. Here, that passes as genius.