You've met the Byrnes...

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2006)

...now Meet the Fockers! Four years after the wildly successful Meet the PArents,the whole gang is back as Nurse Greg Focker(Ben Stiller,ready for more abuse as always),his girlfriend/fiancée PAm Byrnes(Teri Polo,not asked to do much in this one but be attractive and sweet),her parents JAck and Dina Byrnes(Robert DeNiro,full-tilt psycho and Blythe Danner,cool and humane,the perfect counterbalance!)and the dog,Jinxie. To complete the cycle of getting acquainted,Pam and her folks agree to travel down to Florida to meet Greg's family(hence the title,duh!). And as conservative and prim as the Byrnes' seem to be,Bernie and Roz Focker(Dustin Hoffman,hilarious and unchained,something he doesn't seem to get a lot of opportunities to be and Barbra Streissand,kvetchy and overpowering as usual)are every bit as liberal and exuberant to measure.
The story-lines that ensue from there are basically one more long descent into personal hell for Greg,who discovers horrors ranging from his parents' unrestrained pride in their son(to point of painful,as seen in their keeping of everything of Greg's,ranging from every medal or ribbon he's won to his foreskin!)to the possibility that he may've sired a child with the saucy Latin nanny he lost his virginity to many years before. As per the first movie,where the pratfalls and gags seem to get larger as the show goes on,this one has the usual ante-upping. To tell you more might give it away,so I won't. Suffice it to say,Greg Focker won't be the only one to get bruised this time.
Hardly a great movie,this show demands one principal trait here: a patience with--if not outright love of--Ben Stiller. I generally like his work(though he COULD stand to say no to a script or two),so this film does me just fine. The over-reliance on saying "Focker" and plenty of the usual gross-out humor is going to try many audience's patience,but those who can roll with this film will do such peachy. Director Jay Roach,who obviously has no qualm with broad comedy,has the right players(including Tim Blake Nelson in a cameo)to work this kind of genre. Personally,I'd recommend it,if for nothing else some truly dumb laughs. A good compliment to the original.