{image1}As one of the holiday film season's more anticipated films, "Meet the Fockers" is a good movie, but if you're looking for the "I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe" effect that "Meet the Parents" produced then you will be disappointed.
Already the hoopla over the film's name makes one wonder if the trials of male nurse Gaylord (Greg) Focker (Ben Stiller) and his overbearing future father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro) could live up to the hype.
Well, they do, and they don't.
"Meet the Fockers" is light-hearted, and you will laugh. However, "Meet the Parents" had a certain magic about it -- a la other movies like "Office Space" -- where the more you watch the harder you laugh over lines like, "I have nipples Greg, can you milk me?"
In "Meet the Fockers," the cast tries to conjure that magic again, but it's as though they tried too hard by adding too many quirky antics and played out sex jokes. Also, the continual references to the Focker name, seems to signal that the writers lacked material.
Again, you will laugh, just not as hard.
Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman are perfect as Roz and Bernie Focker -- a sex therapist and stay-at-home dad. They breathe life into characters that would name their only male child Gaylord Focker, without a second thought.
DeNiro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo return as Greg's future in-laws and fiancée, traveling to Florida to meet Greg's parents for the first time before Greg and Pam's wedding.
New characters are introduced and a few old ones return as Jack reverts back to his CIA-driven mistrust of Greg, and Greg works to tone down his parents' free love attitude in front of the uptight Byrnes clan.
If you need to be reminded that your family isn't the only crazy one this holiday season "Meet the Fockers" is a good choice.
"Meet the Fockers" opens on Wednesday, Dec. 22.
