Meet The Fockers is in a lot of ways a pale rerun of Meet The Parents. But oddly it is a much more assured film than MTP, in as much as with the exception of one actor, everyone else is a really good comic actor. That acotr of course is Bob De Niro, who after satirising his hard man image in two films and their sequels should be getting better at it, but isn’t. That is okay though, when Dustin Hoffman hugs him, or fights him, or even frowns at him, the sheer rush of energy bounces of De Niro’s stoney visage.
Whilst the film tries to remind us of MTP greatest hits, it plays them for niceness. What might have been interesting would have been to see something truly terrible happen and see how Hoffman and Streisand’s Fockers managed to soft soap it into a positive experience. So a much gentler film, but a film whose boisterousness is nevertheless infectious.
And you forget just how funny Streisand can be. More comedies woman.