Meet the Fockers (2004)

Universal Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 12/24/2004 (USA)
Music: Randy Newman
Rated PG-13

Review by James Harper

Before we get off into the subject of this particular movie can we take a minute and talk about movie trailers. If you have been watching the box office returns on the movies you will know that “Flight of the Phoenix” has not been setting any box office records. They have shown this trailer for the last couple of months endlessly, and I have a theory about the lack of return on this particular movie (no, not that the brontosaurus is tiny at one end, thick in the middle and thin again at the other end theory).

The theory, and admittedly this is not exactly cutting edge, is that when you watch the trailer for “Flight of the Phoenix” you can tell the whole plot of the movie by the excerpts that they choose to include in the trailer. I hate it when they do that. What brought this to my attention was the new atmospheric clip for “The War of the Worlds” which manages to scare you but doesn't really show you anything. Watch for it next time you are at the theater. There is no reason that you cannot make an entertaining trailer without giving the whole plot of the movie away, unless your movie just sucks.

I found “Meet the Fockers” to be boring. Considering that “Shrek 2” and “Spiderman 2” were two of the biggest money makers this year, it is no surprise that Universal would want to make a safe film. And I am assuming that you are already familiar with the first movie “Meet the Parents”. Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro are the brides’ parents (Teri Polo as Pam), and Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand are his parents (Ben Stiller as Greg). Her parents are incredibly uptight and stuffy, and his parents are wild and crazy. I wonder what is going to happen next. On a side note Shelley Berman pops up in one scene, if you are a stand-up comic aficionado.

Humor is somewhat personal and sometimes it is hard to fathom what other people find funny. To give you an idea of my taste in comedy; I love “The Simpsons”, am devoted to “Duckman”, breathe heavy at the mere mention of Monty Python, pull out one of the Kino’s Buster Keaton DVDs at least once a month, and if my house ever catches on fire the first thing I am saving are my copies of the British Goon Shows from the 1950s. The success of a comedy should be judged very simply; does it make you laugh.

“Meet the Fockers” is not completely devoid of laughs, there is a baby thrown into the mix just to set up some of the better jokes. But just the fact that you have De Niro hugging Hoffman (or De Niro breast feeding for that matter) doesn't guarantee a night of mirth. Parts of the movie are actually painful to watch. In fact you may have noticed that neither De Niro nor Hoffman’s strong suit is comedy (though “The Graduate” is damn funny and one of my favorite movies). Ben Stiller is not given a lot to do, but more the catalyst for the action. And I have not seen Ben Stiller come close to being as funny in his last couple of movies as he was with his own send-up of the remake of Cape Fear (the original had De Niro in it) which he did on his own show many years ago. “Meet the Fockers” focuses more on De Niro’s character. The movies chief weakness is just a case of trying to stretch a formula further than was wise. I got the impression I was watching a bad sitcom. The script is very tired and not especially clever. On the other hand if you are a big Streisand fan you may want to go see this, she practically steals the movie out from under the rest of the cast. The movie starts off with a song by Randy Newman, who wrote the score, so it can’t be all bad (of course you still have 98% of the movie left to watch at that point). My suggestion would be take the money that you would spend to see “Meet the Fockers” and instead go buy a copy of “Shaun of the Dead”. The W. C. Fields box set (which features co-star Charlie McCarthy in “You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man” which has been hard to find in the last couple of years) or the Marx Brothers set (which includes the heavenly “Duck Soup”) are available for the curious movie buff.