Meet the Fockers (2005, DVD)

Meet the Fockers opens with Gaylord Focker delivering a baby. If you have not been very graphic with your kids about childbirth, then you will not have to tell them much after the opening of the movie. In fact, the 13 plus set (this is a PG-13) will get quite a sex education by watching the film. From the dog humping the cat to Bernie Focker licking whipped cream off the breasts of his wife, this is quite a free love romp.

Meet the Fockers is the follow up to Meet the Parents (2000). Greg (Gaylord) met the parents of the girlfriend, Jack and Dina Byrnes, in the first movie. Now, both sets of parents will meet in anticipation of the marriage of Greg Focker and Pam Byrnes.

The meeting is in Florida in Focker heaven. This is hippieville where Bernie spends his days puttering around as the house-husband while his wife teaches sexual enhancement classes to senior citizens.

Jack Byrnes decides to skip on flying down and buys a super camper complete with every high tech convenience imagined. He will captain the trip which includes the happy couple, the wife, and a grandson, Little Jack. The cat is also along for the ride.

Bernie greets the Byrnes family by telling them a little story about his testicle that did not drop down properly. He grabs the very uptight Jack in a bear hug and kisses him on the neck. They are going to be family after all. Or, that is the plan.

The two families are as different as chocolate and vanilla ice cream. You have cosmic agers and conservatives spending a couple of days trying to bond. Of course, things are not going to go that well. Right off the bat, the big old cat flushes the little horny dog down the camper toilet. Bernie regales everyone with tales of Greg losing his virginity to the Hispanic housekeeper. Pam figures out that she is pregnant. The list of mishaps goes on and on.

Greg tries mightily to rein his family in enough to pass muster with the Byrnes family. Along the way, he manages to make his own mistakes. Greg is left in charge of baby Jack, and the parents return to find the baby watching a mafia shoot em up movie with a liquor bottle glued to his hands. Baby Jack has also learned his first word which is a profane word. It is just a big mix up, but it does not look good.

The big questions here are:

1. Can the families survive the two day visit?
2. Will Greg get to ride off in the sunset with his woman?

You will have to watch to see how things turn out.

The original cast is here with Ben Stiller as Greg, Terri Polo as Pam, Robert De Niro as Jack and Blythe Danner as Dina. This was a comfortable mix the first time, and it works fine for the second. I always hate replacements like when they tried to put in a new Jan Brady in the Brady Bunch. I am glad all the key players came back for part 2.

Dustin Hoffman as Bernie and Barbara Streisand are fabulous as the Fockers. They have good chemistry and are both campy, funny in this film. I have not seen Streisand in a film in a long time, and she is fabulous as always.

Spencer and Bradley Pickren are rather amazing in the baby role, since they must sign (the new trend in super baby communication) and must also say the a-hole word. It did seem that the baby role was thrown in just for the cutsie factor, but the kids did extremely well for such tiny tots.

Alanna Ubach as Isabel the housekeeper was classic. I think she was my favorite in the whole movie though she had a very small role.

The camera work and sound were good, but the editing was rather slipshod in places. I doubt many viewers would notice the bad cuts, but I do some editing. The film needed a little polishing as far as the edits, but it is certainly watchable.

I am glad that I did not invite friends with the boys for this movie. Much of the humor was sexual. None of the jokes were really nasty, but the sex theme was constant from start to finish. I doubt the boys even figured out some of the subtleties, and when they did, the sex gags were not that funny for boys that age. Old folks learning how to keep partners happy in bed is off the radar for young teens who probably figure the only time their parents did it was when they were conceived. In fact, I thought a lot of the sex jokes fell flat. Even pizza gets old when you eat it over and over again.