Meet the Fockers
reviewed by Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts & Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell

I love comedies, but I hate when movies make the audience feel embarrassed as a means of laughter. I know the tag line of "Meet the Fockers" was along the lines of "You think your parents are embarrassing," but it still makes me feel uncomfortable.

If you also combine the contrived ending to the movie with the stereotypical hippie parents, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman and Babs Streisand, the movie was just uncomfortable and at times painful. However, if you loved "Meet the Parents," which I did not, or if you like embarrassment as a form of amusement, then you will like "Meet the Fockers."

The movie basically picks up where we left off after "Meet the Parents." Gaylord Focker, played by Ben Stiller (Dodgeball), and his fiance Pam, played by Teri Polo (Domestic Disturbance), are taking her parents to meet Gaylord's parents Bernie and Roz Focker, played by Dustin Hoffman (I Heart Huckabees), and in her first role in eight years Barbara Streisand (The Prince of Tides).

So, we have the uptight military family in the Byrnes, Pam's parents Jack and Dina, played by Robert De Niro (Godsend) and Blythe Danner (Forces of Nature), and the hippie parents of Gaylord with the kids stuck in the middle. Wow. How original.

I enjoyed Ben Stiller the most in this movie, even though it wasn't a stretch for him. Everybody else was almost typecast for the part, especially Barbara who is a hippie sex therapist in the movie. Jay Roach who directed this movie, who also directed "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," basically phoned this one in. The script was boring and unoriginal, but it did have a few sight gags which Stiller delivered, providing a few laughs.

Overall, this movie wasn't that good, and there are better things out there. It's as simple as that.

Brian - the Naked Gun

"Meet the Fockers" is the dumbest piece of useless celluloid to be released this season, in its genre.

Ben Stiller's straight man act is unbelievably beaten into the ground at this point. I'm getting to a point where I may simply avoid movies starring Stiller, unless he's obviously throwing us a new "character" performance, like his role in "Dodgeball" last year (2004). Also, I will continue to see any edgy dramatic roles he tries, like in "Permanent Midnight."

However, as for these hapless-loser-in-a-screwed-up-situation roles, Stiller's time is over for me. I am SO tired seeing him give the same performances he's given in "Reality Bites," "Something About Mary," "Along Came Polly" and "Envy," just to name a few.

The storyline with this sequel, as Brian mentions, is extremely unoriginal and frankly dull. I think I caught myself chuckling audibly once during the entire picture.

I also cannot believe the myriad of jokes filmmakers attempted to milk out of this crap pile just from the use of the grandson character. How many times did director Jay Roach think a one year old boy saying the word "a**hole" would get a laugh? At best, the gag would've gotten one hearty chuckle, but Roach blew it and continued to harp on this youngster learning an inappropriate word. Jack's (Robert De Niro) response to this was extremely lifeless and would have drawn the biggest laugh for it.

Brian also nailed Dustin Hoffman and Babs Streisand correctly. The two were extremely stereotypical in this work. Hoffman attempting to achieve Chevy Chase's brand of physical comedy gave me chest pains. I will say Hoffman was funny as written, period, and he did not need to force his role into the land of the contrived. I will blame director Roach for that too.

Roach has entertained me to no end with the Austin Powers' series, and I still feel his best resume item is the lighthearted drama "Mystery, Alaska." However, both "Meet the Parents" and "Meet the Fockers" proves he knows nothing about directing gentle comedy. My advice for him is to stay in one extreme of the other; the lighthearted dramas or the high concept character comedies like "Austin Powers."

The trailers for "Meet the Fockers" did the picture justice. I was concerned the best laughs of the movie were shown in the trailer. I was right. Those horrible, and not humorous, moments given to audiences truly captured the "highlights"--I should say "lowlights"--of the film, thus revealing the true garden of urine this movie turned out to be.

Skip it. Skip it. Skip it. SKIP IT!

Benn - Where's the Humanity?