Meet the Fockers (2004)

"De Niro's deadpan, overbearing style again works like a charm. Stiller, as the comic foil, has some funny moments as well...  USA Today
"The old-pro twosome of Streisand and Hoffman make such sexy and inviting ethnics...  Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"The funniest movie of the year!  Bill Diehl, ABC Radio
"One of those relatively rare comedies that's at once puerile, charming and very funny throughout.  Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times
"Focking funny!  Staci Layne Wilson, Fantastica Daily

Editor's Note Following the knee-slapping hit MEET THE PARENTS, director Jay Roach once again keeps audiences roaring with laughter as he presents this hilarious sequel. This time, young engaged couple Pam (Teri Polo) and Greg (Ben Stiller) are getting their parents together a few months before the wedding. Greg nervously plans out every detail of the trip, only to be usurped by Pam's domineering ex-CIA-man father (Robert DeNiro). Not only has he purchased an RV, insisting they'll be driving from New York City to the Fockers' home in Miami, but he's bringing along his perfect baby grandson. When they finally arrive at the Fockers' house, Greg's parents, Bernie and Roz (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand), turn out to be sex-addicted hippies and not at all what the Byrnes (DeNiro and Blythe Danner) had expected. With one pitfall after another, the film takes the concept of awkward in-law experiences to new heights, from stories about past sexual experiences to detailed discussion of current ones. What's worse, the Fockers are teaching the baby curse words and weaning him on rum, to the shock of his overprotective grandparents. Every conversation is totally inappropriate and downright embarrassing, keeping audiences braced for the next disaster. Along the way, all six cast members turn in topnotch performances, with Hoffman, Streisand, and Stiller leading the charge in true Focker spirit.

	Barbara Streisand
	Dustin Hoffman
	Robert DeNiro
	James Herzfeld - Screenplay
	John Schwartzman - Cinematographer
	Jon Poll - Editor
	Robert De Niro - Producer
	Rusty Smith - Production Designer

New York Times
"[Streisand] generates real warmth in her intimate exchanges with Mr. Stiller and especially Mr. Hoffman." 12/22/2004 p.E1

USA Today
"De Niro's deadpan, overbearing style again works like a charm. Stiller, as the comic foil, has some funny moments as well..." 12/22/2004 p.3D

Los Angeles Times
"The pleasures of MEET THE FOCKERS are many and varied....One of those relatively rare comedies that's at once puerile, charming and very funny throughout." 12/22/2004 p.E14

Entertainment Weekly
"[Streisand and Hoffman] are a hoot, a movable feast of heart and shtick..." 01/14/2005 p.59-60

Sight and Sound
"[T]here are some cherishable comic exchanges between De Niro...and Dustin Hoffman." 02/01/2005 p.61-2

Uncut
"[With] the still-fine interplay between Stiller and De Niro..." 03/01/2005 p.129

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 6 of 10
Meet the Fockers, the 2004 follow-up, plays much like the original, but with less effective h - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
The movie is pleasant enough, but never quite reaches critical mass as a comedy. The director, Jay - Roger Ebert

ReelViews 6 of 10
I am not a fan of Meet the Parents, the 2000 film that introduced Ben Stiller to the joys of having an ex-CIA agent as a potential father-in-law. The movie is too much like a sit-com, although, as a counterbalance, it offers several big laughs. Meet the Fockers, the 2004 follow-up, plays much like the original, but with less effective humor. In the nearly two-hour running length, there are maybe five or six solid chuckles, resulting in a movie experience that is more tedious than entertaining. The problem lies in the screenplay (credited to John Hamburg and Jim Herzfeld, who also wrote installment #1), which latches on to the few clever and/or funny elements in the film and runs them into the ground via repetition...Perhaps the funniest moment in the film occurs when a toddler utters "ass...hole" as his first word. It's crude, but at least (as presented) it's funny. That's more than can be said for the little dog humping everything in sight or Streisand kneeling atop De Niro, giving him a massage. If there's one thing that's disappointing about Meet the Fockers, it's that there seems to be the potential for a laughter-generating material, but it's never explored. There are few things sadder than wasted potential, unless it's sitting through 115 minutes of mediocrity desperately searching for a few decent jokes. - James Berardinelli

Variety 7 of 10
A crafty cat manages to flush a rat-sized dog down the toilet of an RV in "Meet the Fockers," a gag that literally sums up the pervasive below-the-belt humor in this fitfully funny but always crude sequel to the much more amusing "Meet the Parents." The gap between the first and second installments isn't as gaping as with, for instance, "Analyze This" and "Analyze That," but the laughs "Fockers" generates are the type you feel embarrassed about almost immediately afterward...Tenor of the humor closely matches the most vulgar moments of Jay Roach's third and presumably final "Austin Powers" entry; it's curious, in fact, how both Roach franchises have declined in virtually identical ways, only this time in one step rather than two...Hoffman, however, provides the film with its greatest energy source. Even more than in the recent "I Heart Huckabees," thesp gives the impression of being in a second adolescence, so frisky, mischievous and physically invigorated is his characterization. Almost continuously, Hoffman pushes beyond the expected with comic provocation that gives pic an extra spark...Streisand doesn't go that far but is a pleasure to watch in circumstances that make her appear more relaxed onscreen than she has in the more than 30 years since "What's Up, Doc?" - Todd McCarthy