One-gag comedy - 52%

Rating: 5/10 (14 June 2005)

I'm not normally one who watches sequels without watching the original but when your new flatmate (one of three) plugs in her DVD, why not go with the flow and enjoy what gets thrown in the tray? Thus, it was that I sat down and watched "Meet The Fockers", the sequel to the enormously popular comedy "Meet The Parents". Stiller has never recaptured his form from his best film "There's Something About Mary" but here, he is completely upstaged by three old timers, two pets and a baby.
Stiller reprises as the bizarrely named Gaylord Focker, the hopeless klutz engaged to Dina Byrnes (Blythe Danner). Her parents, former CIA agent Jack (Robert De Niro) and long-suffering mother Pam (Teri Polo), were 'met' in the first film so here, Gaylord takes his future in-laws (together with Pam's baby nephew Little Jack) and his future wife to meet his parents. But there is a problem. Obsessive Jack believes that Gay's father Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) is a high-flying lawyer and his mother Roz (Barbara Streisand) is a therapist but it isn't quite like that and to make matters worse, Dina discovers she's pregnant.
In truth, "Fockers" is a very undemanding sequel which is basic in its approach to humour and fairly low in its ambition. However, it does this with such skill and slapstick fun that you fairly quickly get swept up and enjoy it. "Fockers" has so many gems that hit the target, such as the toilet battle between the Focker's dog and the Byrnes' cat. It certainly helps if you've seen "Meet The Parents" (which I haven't) because I simply found each character too exaggerated to be really funny. And the humour is simple - people falling off chairs for no reason and frequent repetition of the name "Focker". But slapstick humour is a dying art and when it's done as well as it is here then you welcome it with open arms.
Despite being the lead, Stiller rarely stretches beyond his "wide-eyed loser" role. De Niro shows an unexpected comic flair as the buttoned-up, anally retentive father-in-law from Hell but Hoffman is his equal, visibly enjoying himself in screen as the polar opposite of Byrne. Streisand launches an unbelievable comeback as the kooky sex therapist and probably gets the acting nods because she simply hasn't done any for so long. "Meet The Fockers" is a strictly low-brow affair but one with such enthusiasm and energy that you'd be hard-pressed not to be taken in by it. Funny and enjoyable but ultimately shallow and not that deep. Still, it's better than a Einstein glove-puppet...