Ridiculous, mean-spirited comedy wastes good cast

Rating: 2/10 (27 December 2004)

Witless follow-up to "Meet the Parents" is full of slapstick chaos with poor continuity, strained gags, pets used as vulgar visual jesters, and a screaming toddler. Worse than that, the film has some of the worst writing, directing, and cinematography I've seen all year. Ben Stiller, his lipsticked-mouth always open in surprise and his eyes rimmed in black like a raccoon, makes certain his overly-pancaked face is in close-up at all available times; this must have been contagious, because the cameraman plasters the screen with everybody's mug, which wouldn't be so bad except that their confusion over the stupidity of the plot is magnified. Jokes are flayed around desperately in the hopes of hitting a target (even the end-credits joke-reel fails). Loud instead of funny, everything is underlined and then milked for a chuckle. There are terrible sequences and running jokes in this movie, jokes that are even out of character (like Robert De Niro and the strap-on breast). It doesn't work. As for that bawling infant, who also gets his fair share of close-ups: he learns to talk dirty, which really cracked up the audience I saw "Meet the Fockers" with. *1/2 from ****