Movie Review - Little Fockers "What the FOCK?" *Robert DeNiro , Ben Stiller

When I saw the first part ‘Meet the Parents’, I sort of liked it. The movie had enjoyable good moments, De Niro’s act was worth complimenting and even though the sequel ‘Meet the Fockers’ was upsetting in comparison, absolutely nothing could have prepared for what was about to come next. With the third installment in the trilogy of the Focker series, ‘Little Fockers’ packs up impassive gags, time-wasted subplots on a story loosely tied around Jack’s patriarchal guidelines for Greg on education, finances and a home.

It’s the birthday of Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo) 5-yr old twins Henry and Sam (who look different and appear of different ages, but are supposed to be twins! Get the humor?). This calls for a visit from Pam’s parents, Jack (Robert DeNiro) and his wife, Dina (Blythe Danner), as well as Greg’s parents (Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman). When Jack faces a heart attack, he begins grooming Greg as the new head of the family. However matters are soon complicated, when the appearance of Greg’s colleague Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba) re-rings Jack’s suspicion bells of Greg straying from the marriage. Toss in Pam’s ex-flame Owen Wilson and it’s a family reunion anyone would want to escape.

‘Little Fockers’ is merely an age-leap with unquestionably nothing riveting in either characters or humor. Where the first part and its sequel successfully set into motion an anthology of circumstances of meeting parents on both (groom and bride) sides, part three does no justice to its title. Yes, the script jumps ahead a couple of years and we are introduced to Fockers’ twins. But soon after spending needless opening reels re-introducing old characters, the film shifts focus and returns to the old fracas between a nervous, insecure Greg and his no-nonsense, suspicious father-in-law Jack.

I wouldn’t want to waste words and space detailing the performances. The actors do what they possibly could do make the movie slightly laughable, there are times they partially succeed. Sadly when all that is left is physical humor, vomit, sex talk and other bawdiness, there is just about that much once can do to salvage it. Though I could see no potential in this three-quel, I sense director Paul Weitz could have done better by exploring Greg and Pam’s parental journey rather than traversing the older route of lame pratfalls that was taken twice earlier.

Bottomline? Six years. Two Hollywood studios. A stellar talented cast ensemble and a basketful of what looks like rejected scenes from the previous two parts. The franchise overreaches itself in this outing and the only joke that could come out of this will be on the person who pays to watch it. AVOID!