Better than the first film...

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2009)

I'm going by my rating for the first Meet the... film when I say this one shades the first in terms of laughs because, to be honest, I remember very little of the initial outing. Maybe I was just in a more receptive mood when I saw this sequel - the humour is undoubtedly of the toilet variety - but I found myself chuckling out loud on a number of occasions while watching this which is something that doesn't happen too often these days.
Dustin Hoffman makes the biggest impression with his laid-back hippyish father of the bridegroom, while Robert De Niro plays his familiar rigid stick-in-the-mud. De Niro doesn't come out of their interplay too well here to be honest; Hoffman easily overshadows him and he really looks like he's waiting for knocking-off time for much of the film. Mind you, that could be said for many of his performances these days: his choice of roles has proved fairly dubious since Di Caprio replaced him as Scorsese's favourite actor, and perhaps that's why he so often looks jaded on-screen.
Barbra Streisand comes out of screen retirement to play Ben Stiller's sex therapist mother and you have to wonder why. Any number of competent (but less iconic) actresses could have played the role as there isn't really that much screen time - or laughs - given to her.
While it might not manage to sustain its pace throughout its slightly over-long running time, Meet the Fokkers proves to be entertaining enough to prevent you from feeling you've been wasting your time.