Tuesday, January 25, 2005
I went in to watch the movie Meet the Fockers with some expectations and thankfully the movie had no problem in meeting them. This time around Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) joins Pam's parents, Jack (Robert De Niro) and Dina (Blythe Danner) on a long trip to Florida to meet the Fockers before the wedding. Even though Greg is securely ensconsced within Jack's "circle of trust" he still feels a bit uncomfortable with the sneaking suspicion that Jack doesn't really trust him and various events during the trip somehow establishes this feeling. Things weren't even getting better when they finally arrived at the Fockers' house. Greg's parents were former hippies who didn't believe in being strict with kids and everything, a far cry with the law around the Byrnes family. Greg's dad, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) is a retired lawyer who practices tai-chi and whose view of life is to enjoy it to the hilt. Greg's mom, Roz (Barbara Streisand) is presently a sex therapist for senior citizens, an occupation that Greg tries real hard to keep the Byrnes from knowing. Though the elder Fockers try their darnest to accomodate their son's wishes not to embarrass him in front of his future in-laws, they just couldn't help being themselves and some occasional anecdotal snippets from Greg's childhood would come up that not only embarrassed him but also exposed some old lies that were said before to impress his in-laws. Thinking that the Fockers didn't have in them to be connected with the Byrnes, Jack began to investigating Greg's background to see whatever dirty secrets would come up to break the wedding.
There were a lot of funny moments in the movie and some favorites of mine involved the scenes involving the elder Byrnes and Fockers. Ben Stiller gets to be a tad annoying at times as his characters tries too hard to be liked. Hasn't he learned his lesson before? Good thing these scenes were few and far between. It's my opinion that this film far surpasses the first one not because of the story but because of the presence of the Mr. De Niro, Mr. Hoffman, and Ms. Streisand. They were natural comedians and seeing in this one film throwing lines at each other is priceless. You could really see them having fun acting with each other.
* Check out also the review in Hollywood Jesus for more insightful reactions to this great movie.
@ 10:51 PM ---> 
