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Meet the Fockers is a poor copy of the hugely successful Meet the Parents. A review by Ervell E. Menezes In the old days Hollywood put out-of-work veterans like Edward G. Robinson in insignificant bit parts. Today they put them in comedies. Going by Meet the Fockers you have yesteryear veterans Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro and Barbra Streisand with current comedian Ben Stiller in what they probably believed to be the magic formula. But the net result is a typically slapstick, situational farce, replete with cheap, base and even gross American humour. That Meet the Parents was hugely successful about five years ago must have been the provocation for this "repeat’ but it lacks imagination. That they have to meet the parents again sparks of a total lack of imagination. As for the family name in the title it is very similar to the most popular swearword and is only a hint that most of the humour will be below the belt. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is still a male nurse and still wanting to marry Pam brines (Teri Polo). Pam’s stern, if eccentric, dad Jack (Robert DeNiro) wants to get acquainted with the in-laws. "If I see where you came from I’ll have a better idea of where you’re going," he says, but the film goes nowhere. That Pam’s parents Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz (Barbra Streisand) are as corny as Jack is meant to heighten the comedy but hardly does. The only comparatively normal one is Pam’s mother Dina (Blythe Danner). So it is a question of three couples treading on each others corns and getting into unlikely situations, blowing hot and cold but raising only a modicum of laughs. Oh yes, there’s a baby meant to add to the hilarity but after the initial novelty it is a clear no-no. Director Jay Roach is unable to control Ben Stiller and when the lacklustre screenplay gives these eccentric characters an open sesame it is the story that takes a nose-dive. There’s Jack’s classy state-of-the arts road vehicle and a sick toilet episode apart from humping canines, breaking wind (seems to be an American favourite) and other bawdy encounters that pall rather than raise laughs. Roz is a sex therapist but this scarcely enhances the comedy. Trying to get into the Brynes Circle of Trust seems to be an exercise in futility for Greg. So, a film which begins badly gets worse with every passing frame. How the fortunes keep
changing and the moods are transformed no one knows. Not even director
Jay Roach. What is quite apparent is that big names (even old big names)
do not necessarily make a good film. As for Ben Stiller he isn’t much
better than Jim Carrey. But the piffle and farce one has to endure
before the curtain finally comes down is scarcely worth the effort. Like
the proverbial two grains of wheat in bushels of chaff and chaff as we
all know is precisely that. Eminently avoidable. |
