annoying

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2001)

I dislike movies where the main character gets into trouble by lying. Especially stupid, pointless lies that will obviously be found out eventually. There have been some bad offenders, but this movie takes it to ridiculous extremes. Ben Stiller's character is weak, stupid, dishonest, unsympathetic, and way beyond the threshold of believability. And even if those things don't bother you, the movie just isn't funny.
The people responsible for this dud should take some lessons from "There's Something About Mary". That had much riskier humour, which could have blown up in their face, but worked. One of the reasons was because under the gruff exterior, it had a good heart. It had *charm*. Under this contrived mess of insecurity and deception was nothing but a lump of coal. I felt the stupid Focker deserved every bad thing that happened, and more. The sappy Hollywood ending rang hollow as a result. Pheh.