Meet The Fockers [21]

Who are the Fockers? You would not know unless you saw the first installment, Meet The Parents. In Meet The Parents, Gaylord ‘Greg’ Focker (Ben Stiller) goes to meet his fiancé’s (Pam played by Teri Polo) parents (Jack and Dina Byrnes, played by Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) for the first time. Jack turns out to be an Ex-CIA operative with all the paranoia and foibles of a daughter’s father thrown in. Now that we know the Byrnes and the hell that Greg Focker went through, the shoe is on the other foot. Jack and Dina travel to meet Greg’s parents. The setup was already made in Meet The Parents when Jack says: “I guess the only thing to do now is meet his parents. I'm sure they're decent people. I mean they gotta be if they named their son Gaylord Focker.”

So who could you get that could beat Di Niro’s over the top performance? It looks like we have the perfect foils in Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand as Bernie and Roz Focker. Their hippie-jewish easygoing personas should easily clash with Jack Byrnes WASPish rightwing type A personality. Jack was the cool as a cucumber man of the castle in the first movie. Bernie will be the cooler than thou in his own castle. Hoffman is probably the only actor that really could match Di Niro. Throw in Streisand, and he is just going to be crushed.

Much of the Comedy in Meet the Parents came from the “Fish in a very strange pond” setup. Greg Focker was out of his normal waters and squarely in Jack Byrnes home pond. Now Jack leaves his home and is a guest in someone else’s house. So I think that much of his discomfort will be played for laughs. Greg will still have his moments, especially when Kevin Rawley, Pam’s rich ex (played by Owen Wilson) makes a re-appearance in this movie. I don’t know if there will be a last minute play for Pam again, but at least Greg will have some competition for Pam.

I think this movie will be even better than the first one and look forward to seeing it. I do not expect that a third movie could come of this. Stay far away from Meet the Grandparents...{BB}

Added: December 17th 2004
Reviewer: BB
29 Point Scale Score:    [21]

Related Movie Link (IMDB): IMDB
Hits: 2000
Language: english