Little Fockers

With a title like Little Fockers, is it really a surprise that this 2010 rom com turned out the way that it did? Being the third film in the Meet the Parents film series (which is just an odd thing to see become a franchise), this movie takes whatever good will came from the original 2000 movie, and thoroughly smashes it down and proceeds to grind its feet in it. While it seems that each of these films still have their supporters as each did do well at the box office (with this film even earning a total of $310.7 million against its $100 million budget), this film did noticeable worse than its two predecessor, proving that it was finally on its last legs. Five years after the events of Meet the Fockers, Gaylord Focker (played by Ben Stiller) seems to live a normal happy life with his wife, Pam Focker (played by Teri Polo) and his two children, Henry and Samantha (played by Colin Baiocchi and Daisy Tahan), but trouble still seems to surface from the in-laws, particularly grandfather Jack Byrnes (played by Robert De Niro) who constantly been unimpressed with Focker and wishes that his daughter ended up with pretty boy and ex-fiancé of Pam’s, Kevin Rawley (played by Owen Wilson). On the eve of the children’s birthdays, Robert De Niro informs Focker that due to having no other options available to him, he plans to declare him as the new  head of the family after he eventually dies (the ‘’GODFOCKER’’ if you would) and he tries desperately to prove to his father-in-law that he is capable of being a responsible father while trying to put his children into a good school. dealing with how much better Kevin is as a person and proving to his stepfather that he’s not having an affair with coworker drug representative, Andi Garcia (played by Jessica Alba). With a premise practically exact to the first film and with writing so bad and generic that it’s hard not to sleep through or skip the movie entirely, Little Fockers is a complete waste of time that offers little other than a reminder of what can happen when a simple but fun idea is pushed too far.

The story, if it can even be called that, is incredibly weak and generic even for romantic comedy standards. From the first film’s perspective of a man meeting his significant other’s family, it’s not a premise that seems to offer a ton of material, but for a one-note gimmick, it should work and did work out fine as the film was well received by both critics and audiences and many still see it as a corny but likeably silly classic to this day. But when a movie with a small premise starts to milk itself dry because it had success previously, it’s only going to end in destruction and this is the resulting aftermath, a puddle of plot-threats from other generic comedies that are thrown together in an attempt to have something of worth. With no care in trying to further anything like a sequel should do and instead use it as an excuse to do the same stuff over and over again, nothing about the movie is surprising, charming, clever, or even stupidly effective, it’s just a dull boring forgettable mess. Not even featuring the same team as the previous film had outside of a few actors, the film seems to be under the delusion that by referencing other films and other comedies, that makes itself funny and means it doesn’t have to try with anything else like story or character.  The change in style and especially in its humor makes a lot more sense when looking at the people behind the film. Meet the Parents as well as Meet the Fockers was directed by Jay Roach who also helped direct the Austin Power movie franchise, which were also films that no one really had much to credit in terms of complexity, yet eventually blossomed into huge successes at the box office, so clearly, he has a specific touch that helped the first two films out. However, he only acts as a producer for this film, as the directing helm was handed over to Paul Weitz, who is most well-known for directing the teen sex comedy American Pie, which goes to explain the film’s weirdly disgusting style of humor and lack of any sense of charm or even genuine warmth. You’d think that with the title like Little Fockers, this film would be an excuse to create a spin-off with a bunch of younger characters as a means of continue the franchise on even longer like most popular films did at the time (it was an awful trend, but at least it would’ve made sense), but they contribute particularly nothing to the overall story and instead just act as the focal point for Stiller and de Niro to fight over again, it was clearly just a gimmicky title plastered to pretend to be about something different when really it just wanted to do the same thing again.

All these actors feel above this material and yet they’re held hostage by that fact, trudging through terrible lines and scenes that are definitely not going to be put on their resumes or mentioned in any of their future material (unless as a means of mockery). A bizarre little fact is that Stiller and De Niro were offered a remuneration of $20 million dollars (given the success of the first two films and the stardom that both have achieved over the years), and even that doesn’t feel like enough for what they had to put themselves through. Both are incredibly boring and not doing anything that different from their usual shticks both in and out of this franchise, most of the supporting roles are either wasted or annoying, and none work together to create something enjoyable or memorable. Ben Stiller is bad at playing the straight guy and not allowed to do his usual goofy self, Teri Polo as his wife is boring and barely even feels like a character (despite it being her family), the kids are really annoying and poorly acted (which is understandable as they are children but even still), Robert De Niro is extremely annoying and unlikeable in this (he seems to be the one causing all the problems in this movie yet has the nerve to keep pretend that Stiller is always the one at fault), Owen Wilson is wasted and just acts as ”the other guy;”, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman get old really quickly, and Jessica Alba is only in this movie because they wanted to exploit her by showing her practically naked by the end (which is sadly a common trend for most of the times Jessica Alba is featured in a movie). The only two actors that feel like they could have been effective if they had more than two minutes of screen time is Laura Dern, who plays a teacher looking after the kids, and Kevin Hart, a nurse who works with Ben Stiller. Despite having practically nothing to do with the overall story and only showing up in small scenes that also don’t seem to go anywhere, their moments are the only ones where it feels like it could have gotten a laugh solely through their performances and timing. It’s not saying a ton as they still don’t really work, but in this film with a script this terrible, a direction this garbage and actors this wasted, you take whatever breadcrumbs you can get.

As previously stated, the movie’s humor gets far more lowbrow and stupid for this franchise and even general comedies of the era to the point that it’s just painful to get through. With nothing else to do with this franchise, it’s no surprise the humor takes a back heel turn into the lowest form of comedy territories.  Both screenwriters for this film, Larry Stuckey and John Hamburg  have a varying degree of content listed from their filmography, with John Hamburg at least being attached to other films like Zoolander, Along Came Polly, I Love You, Man and even the original Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, whilst Larry Stuckey had only help write the 2001 comedy, Elling previous to this and not much else afterwards (him helping to write the UglyDolls movie definitely doesn’t help his case). The writing in this works horribly for a comedy and horribly for a movie in general (which isn’t a surprising statement considering the film was nominated for Worst Screenplay at the years Razzie Awards). It’s too stupid and predictable for any of the humor to work as none of it has good timing or creativity behind it, and the natural dialogue is so forced and unrealistic, it makes Disney channel content look authentic. For a comedy to have bad writing is one of the worst things that can happen as its usually the sole focus of the story, character, and direction. If the material is unfunny and lame, there’s very little else that can save the other elements.

Little Fockers is a little monster of a film. It may have come from perfectly passable beginnings and then train wrecked itself later on as it tried desperately to hold onto an idea that made people laugh the first time around, but what little sympathy could’ve been given to it after the first retry (which was received better than this film, but not by much), there are no tears to be shed this time. Instead of being charming and entertaining, its badly written and annoying to sit through and despite how many famous names are attached to this film, the laziness that is required to not only continue this one-trick concept out of the sole purpose of making money, but not even having the courtesy to use these talented funny people in any serviceable way is the true terror. With weak acting, a poor story, terrible writing, and a pointlessness that it can’t escape from, this movie is a definite skip. Much like being a professional Godfocker, it thought it was finally out, but it was pulled back in needlessly and painfully, ending on a horribly sour note.