Little Fockers

This movie is nothing but a setup for lame pratfalls, bawdy humor and a pathetic physical showdown between Ben Stiller’s neurotic son-in-law, Greg Focker, and Robert De Niro’s psychotic patriarch, Jack Byrnes. What started out as a mildly hilarious face-off between the two in the original Meet the Parents has now deteriorated into a showcase that is genuinely ugly and not at all funny. The plot involves some sort of garbage about De Niro’s character fearing he will die soon, so he must pick somebody to guide his family into the future. Stiller’s character is in the running, but not before he’s subjected to the sort of humiliation and stalking that would get most people imprisoned. Dustin Hoffman, who originally passed on the film, shows up in scenes shot and tacked on after initial filming had ceased. Dustin, you should’ve stuck to your guns and stayed far, far away. As for Barbra Streisand, I really liked her in movies when I was a kid. I hate her now.