#25: Meet the Fockers

Release Date: October 24th, 2004

Format: Streaming (Netflix)

Written by: John Hamburg and Jim Herzfeld

Directed by: Jay Roach

1.5 Stars

Meet the Fockers is a classic example of imposter syndrome in a comedy film. The energy of the movie seems to stem from the need to remind the audience how funny the first film was, and prove that it wasn’t a fluke. 

Remember how funny these characters are! You like them, remember!  

It also uses that misplaced logic of, “This was funny in the first movie, so let’s give the audience more of that.” Jack Byrnes, De Niro’s CIA operative father-in-law character, had a polygraph in his study in the first movie. Now he has a fully functioning war room secretly built into the belly of his RV. Hilarious. 

The director and writers and performers are too talented for this to be a completely awful movie (actually, maybe not. At some point I need to subject myself to the third movie in the series, Little Fockers). But this movie tries too hard, especially watching it directly after Meet the Parents, which is thoughtfully paced and sure of itself. That movie organically created characters and family dynamics that worked well. This movie’s goal is to make sure you never, never forget it, and here, have some more, whether you like it or not.