Isn't this just a "Carry On" movie with A-list talent? No, thankfully.

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2005)

"Meet the Parents" was probably the best of Robert DeNiro's numerous forays into the lighter side, though it's a long way away from the terrific "Tribeca" TV series he executive produced. "Meet the Fockers" is even further away - this is, in some senses, a crude comedy that wouldn't get much notice or be taken too seriously if its stars were all under the age of 30, but since none of them are, and since three of the four stars have Oscars to their name, it's a horse of a different colour. But like the slight but engaging original, this has more going for it than jokes about a male nurse called Gaylord Focker.
The movie's pitting a relatively straightlaced couple (DeNiro and Gwynnie's mum) against a much more free-living pair (lawyer Dustin Hoffman and sex therapist Barbra Streisand) isn't the most original premise, and writers Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and director Jay Roach occasionally... okay, not that occasionally... go for the cheap gag ("Honk if you're horny" indeed - and is that Erica Campbell as the driver of the bus, or just wishful thinking on my part?) - but the cast's enthusiastic playing is very hard to resist, with Hoffman a standout as the kind of dad who's so embarrassing most of us will relate in a second. Somehow if he, DeNiro and Barbra Streisand had been in the same movie in the 1970s it's hard to imagine it would be like this (especially since Streisand, never renowned for the smallness of her ego, is billed fourth!).
Where the movie really scores isn't in jokes about the Fockers's dog humping the Byrnes's cat (!!!), but in the way it leavens the comedy with the subtext about trust, which is ultimately what the movie is really about. This may well strike some viewers as unnecessary schmaltz, but without it the movie wouldn't have anything at its heart. While the added dimension has its drawbacks (it does seem a bit too long), in the end "Meet the Fockers" is more than a gross-out comedy for grownups; everyone looks as if they're having a good time, and ultimately so will many viewers, even if it does repeat some elements of the first one (but then, most sequels do). Ultimately, I liked it.