Meet the Fockers is, essentially, a rework of Meet the Parents. It’s the same jokes, the same storyline, and the same characters - plus two.

As Greg and Pam (Ben Stiller and Teri Polo) prepare to get married, Pam’s parents, Jack (Robert DeNiro) and Dina (Blythe Danner) visit Greg’s parents, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz (Barbra Streisand). Greg is, once again, doing everything he can to maintain his future father in law’s approval, and is continually losing it through stupid mistakes and the eccentricities of his own parents. In a very similar story arch, Greg tumbles further outside the circle of trust until, after all chaos has erupted, things are sorted out and everything is just fine between everyone.

The focus of Meet the Fockers, however, is not the story, or even Greg much at all, but watching Hoffman and Streisand play out their eccentric roles. The two go from not funny to very not funny as their hippy characters respond to the conservative Byrnes. The plot gets even less attention as the film fattens up on perpetually more asinine chaos and perpetually less creative sexual humor. Thanks largely to Stiller, Meet the Focker’s still has its moments, of course, and manages to draw a handful of good laughs.

Year: