The poster featuring Ben Stiller
holding his face in anguish sums up, better than words, my feelings
on this film. (Just for the record, I did see Meet the Parents and
it was very average.)
So the plot of this movie involves the
engaged Greg and Pam taking Jack and Dina (Pam's parents) to Florida
to meet Bernie and Roz (Greg's parents). Oh yeah, they're also taking
their baby nephew for some reason (so we can have dumb baby jokes); it's only explained with, like,
one throw-away line that I can't remember. So the parents – in
particular the Jack and Bernie – don't get along too well mostly
because the Byrnes's are patriotic conservatives and the Fockers are
careless sex-crazed hippies. It turns out that Pam is pregnant, but
everyone tries keeping it a secret from Jack who made Greg promise
not to have sex with her until after the wedding (which directly
contradicts a conversation Greg and Jack had in the first movie!).
Jack suspects that Greg may have had an affair at the age of 15 with
his parents' housekeeper, especially since the housekeeper's 15
year-old son, Jorge, bears an uncanny resemblance to him. Ew. At one
point Greg is left to babysit his nephew and low-brow humour ensues:
the baby watches Scarface, plays around with rum, and learns how to
say the word “asshole”. I don't know if it was just special
effects or they really got a baby to say that word, but either way it
just wasn't worth it.
In fact that's one of the main
problems with this film; the jokes are often immature and sophomoric.
Here's some examples. Two men using the same bathroom at once. Roz
teaching sex therapy to old people. Trying to hide statues of naked
people from Jack. Dogs getting flushed down a toilet. Greg's 30
year-old foreskin being saved in a baby scrapbook. You see what I'm
getting at here? Also, it's never a good sign when movie characters are
having an overly drawn-out, supposedly “hilarious” conversation
and one of the characters (usually embarrassed) suggests hurrying it
up and I find myself agreeing, “Yes! Just get to the point! This
isn't funny at all!”
Even the characters are boring. Simply
put, every character in this movie is either an idiot or just an
incompetent jerk. Bernie is the former (he ignores/forgets his son's
requests to not disturb the Byrnes's with his overly-loud sex
upstairs), Jack is the latter (he's made a hobby out of trying to
break up his daughter's engagement as well as being a terrible
grandparent), and Greg is a bit of both. Before seeing this movie I
always thought Meet the Fockers was a chick flick, but as it turns
out it isn't. All of the female characters in this movie are
one-dimensional and have been reduced to secondary character status, which is kinda dumb; I mean Pam is basically in the same boat as
Greg here! As for the acting, this movie sure does have some big
name stars but their talent is mostly wasted. As I said before, the
female characters blend into the background. Ben Stiller's
performance is pretty standard. Nevertheless, the best performances
are easily Robert DeNiro (Jack) and Dustin Hoffman (Bernie). There's
noticeable chemistry going on between these two. Hoffman looks like
he's having a lot of fun with his role. DeNiro isn't as good, but
you can tell he's trying.
Anyways, back to the plot. After the
disastrous babysitting scene, Jack loses all trust in Greg and
resumes spying on him just like in the last movie. So much for character development. He sets up cameras
around the house and steals samples of both Greg's and Jorge's DNA
for parentage testing. (Is it worth questioning why the CIA keeps
sending Jack high-tech spy gadgets even though he's retired? Tax
dollars at work...) Jack then forcibly injects Greg with truth serum
which causes him to run his mouth in front of everyone at his
engagement party, embarrass his family, and ruin the whole party much
to Jack's amusement (told you he's a jerk). When everyone finds out
what Jack did, Dina admits that everyone deliberately kept Pam's
pregnancy a secret from him. (This guy is supposedly an expert in
telling when people are lying to him, yet he couldn't even figure
that out? Worst CIAgent ever!) Betrayed, Jack takes the baby and starts
driving home to go mope by himself like a baby. Long story short,
Bernie and Greg catch up with him and they all make amends since it
turns out that Greg isn't really Jorge's father. And so our movie
ends with Pam and Greg being married by Owen Wilson, Pam's
ex-fiancee. Oh yeah, and the Byrnes's learn a few moves from Roz.
Thank you for that.
So, was there anything that this film
did right? Well, the part towards the
end with the high-strung highway patrolman who tasers everybody was kind of funny. Also the part where it shows Roz's and Bernie's display
of Greg's unimpressive childhood awards was a curious idea; it's both
funny and touching at the same time. And again Hoffman and DeNiro do
a decent job at their roles. On the whole, this movie takes way more
risks than its prequel; it's definitely not as forgettable as the
first,
but it is way more low-brow and a
little too outrageous. There are scenes that go on for way too long
in the hopes of getting out a cheap laugh and it's otherwise impressive
cast is wasted portraying thoroughly unlikeable characters. In short: it's focking lame.
Final rating: one star out of five.
No comments:
Post a Comment