Meet the Fockers (2004)

Short story: lame.

I confess I kept the movie as a particular treat in my Netflix list, and I was looking forward to a funny movie. “Meet the Parents” was stuck in my brain as an incredibly laugh-worthy movie, and I though that Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand would just be a hoot together.

Not so. Amazing. I don’t know what happened. Even Robert de Niro lost all his funny bones in this sequel. The only one that still stands out is Blythe Danner, who has the same charming ditzyness that made her so vital to the success of the first movie.

Now you ask: how could three heavy-weights of stardom like de Niro, Hoffman, and Streisand fail in a movie? Well, it’s all in the script. The funny moments are too close to the pensive ones, and the movie tries to stretch itself from pseudo-psychology to slapstick too many times not to confuse. Even the scenes that could have been funny are spoiled by their proximity to advancement of serious issues.

Too bad. Under different circumstances, this would have been an incredibly successful cast!