Meet The Fockers (2004)
The Cast
Robert De Niro .... Jack Byrnes
Ben Stiller .... Greg Focker
Dustin Hoffman .... Bernie Focker
Barbra Streisand .... Roz Focker
Blythe Danner .... Dina Byrnes
Teri Polo .... Pam Byrnes
This is the sequel to the hugely successful, & in my opinion, pretty funny Meet the Parents, which was also directed by Jay Roach. The first movie was all about Greg's (Stiller, playing pretty much the same hapless guy as he does in nearly every movie) & his attempts to fit in with his fiance's (Polo) family. Her father (De Niro) is an ex-CIA agent with plenty of trust issues. The comedy pretty much wrote itself. Parents was a pretty funny movie just because a) you wanted to see Stiller suffer, or b) the situations & the problems that arose from them were so ricockulous, you couldn't help but laugh.
Fockers is the follow-up, & Greg & Pam still aren't married. The Byrnes haven't met Greg's parents yet, & the trip starts off suspiciously well. Which, in a way, was a disappointment for me, because I so enjoyed Kali Rocha's flight attendant from Parents. Disappointment knows no bounds when I don't get to see her at her smarmiest. Ah well, it's all for the story I guess.
Greg's parents turn out to be regular Fockers (did you see what I did there?), ably played by Dustin Hoffman & Barbra Streisand. I will defend Streisand to the death, because I so enjoyed What's Up Doc? that it would probably rank as one of my Top Five Cannonball Run Movies (stupid premise, big Hollywood cast). The Fockers are affectionate, open-minded & very open people, conflicting with Jack Byrnes' lifestyle in semi-hysterical ways.
The movie almost tries to hard to top Parents. There's not much else I can say other than I enjoyed it, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. That is if you've seen Meet the Parents. De Niro's still pretty funny as the straight man, though the situations get way more far out than the first one, & that kinda reeks of desperation. It was a good time though, as I've paraphrased earlier in this paragraph. 3.5 outta 5.
Roger Ebert's review