Little Fockers (2010)
By Roxanne Downer
You know a comedy is going to be terribly tedious when the studio can’t scrape together enough funny material to produce an amusing trailer. Such is the case with Little Fockers, the entirely gratuitous third (and dear God, please say final) installment of the film trilogy that started a decade ago with Meet the Parents.
The gang has returned to embarrass themselves and annoy audiences. This time around, uptight ex-spy Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is starting to feel his own mortality and hopes that his male nurse son-in-law Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller) will step up to the plate to be the new family patriarch. It seems a strange fit because the two have had a contentious, even violent, relationship since Greg first announced he wanted to marry Jack’s daughter, Pam (Teri Polo). But Jack hopes he can trust Greg now that the couple has little twin Fockers of their own.
Get it? Little Fockers? It sounds like f-ckers. That’s hilarious, right?
Unfortunately, Greg gets caught up with a sexy, flirty drug rep–who sells an erectile dysfunction medicine, natch–named Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba). Get it? Like the actor Andy Garcia. But she’s a young, hot babe. So when Jack tries to Google her, he sees pictures of the stubbly Cuban dude and then wonders about the sexuality of his son-in-law, Gay Focker. Get it? I’ll be here all week, folks. Try the veal.
Anyway, it’s the twin’s birthday–in mid-summer, nowhere near Christmas, as the billboards and turkey carving scene would like you to believe–and The Byrnes, including long-suffering wife and mom Dina (Blythe Danner) are coming into town. So are the elder Fockers, oversexed Jewish hippies Roz and Bernie (Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman). Plus, there’s an unexpected visit from Kevin (Owen Wilson), Pam’s rich, New Age ex-boyfriend who is still so in love with her he gets a tattoo of her face across his entire back. A tattoo? Oh, Kevin, take my wife. Please.
Little Fockers is a sad, tired example of why comedy trilogies rarely work. It was amusing 10 years ago, when Bobby D. was a little past his prime but not yet eligible for social security, to watch him lampoon his own tough-guy past. I can appreciate a legend that’s willing to take the piss out of himself. Three movies in, it’s just pathetic. At no point is it more so than in a scene where director Paul Weitz, taking over from Jay Roach, orchestrates a knock-down, drag-out fight between Jack and Greg at the twin’s birthday party. That’s because it’s clear that Mr. De Niro is no longer performing his own stunts and the double they use looks nothing like him. Do you remember that scene in Spaceballs where the princess’s double is a burly guy with a beard? Yeah, it’s like that. Except this was unintentionally hilarious.
In fact, the only other time I laughed in this movie’s 98 minutes is when Barbra delivers a line about doing the reverse cowgirl, the sexual position. I am not made of stone, after all. Okay, I also had a cruel little giggle when the wee-est little Focker (Colin Baoicchi) falls off a rock-climbing wall with a thud. It’s come to that. But rest assured, those are the only two chuckles writers John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey have in store for you. The rest is all projectile vomiting, farting, enemas and self-mortification.
In other words, don’t waste your focking money.
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This Little Fockers movie review is copyright 2009 Small World Marketing and Shane Rivers. This Little Fockers review should not be reprinted without the permission of the copyright holders.
This movie review of Little Fockers expresses the opinion of the author only. Other Little Fockers movie reviews are available online, and some of those might or might not express different opinions on the movie. Like those other Little Fockers movie reivews, this Little Fockers review is intended for the entertainment and education of the reader. This Little Fockers movie review is provided as is with no warranty or guarantee implied.
UR FUNNY AS HELL!! U SHOULD OF PRODUCE THIS MOVIE LOL!!