{"id":9406,"date":"2024-11-30T12:03:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9406"},"modified":"2024-11-30T12:03:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T17:03:53","slug":"little-fockers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/little-fockers\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Fockers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Little Fockers <\/strong>(2010)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal-Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (mature sexual humor throughout, language, some drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Weitz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stephen Trask\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 2010 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba, Laura Dern, Kevin Hart, Daisy Tahan, Colin Baiocchi, Tom McCarthy, Harvey Keitel, Yul Vasquez.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $148.4M (US)\/$310.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0In my never-humble opinion, the hit comedy Meet the Parents is just okay. The sequel Meet the Fockers is a little better. The three-quel Little Fockers is focking terrible. How bad is it? When my wife and I saw it at the movies, she had no problem sneaking into a second movie afterwards without paying. Like me, she felt it was owed to us after the 98 minutes of torture we just endured. Keep in mind we\u2019re talking about one of the most honest people in the world here. That she willingly became my partner-in-crime that afternoon says a lot about the power of bad cinema.<\/p>\n

Third time is definitely not a charm in this crass, witless follow-up to the hit comedies centering on a never-ending battle of wits between hapless male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller, There\u2019s Something About Mary) and his intense, ex-CIA father-in-law Jack Byrnes (De Niro, Taxi Driver). All the main players are back in Little Fockers along with the newest family members, twin Fockers Samantha (Tahan) and Henry (Baiocchi), the offspring of Greg and wife Pam (Polo, The Fosters). Once again, a visit with his in-laws \u2013 this time for the twins\u2019 fifth birthday party- causes Greg to get into one humiliating situation after another as a result of stress stemming from his tense relationship with Jack. There\u2019s something more on the line this time. By way of coming to terms with his mortality, Jack has decided to name Greg as the new head of the Byrnes clan, the \u201cGod-Focker\u201d if you will. I know you see where this is going. The more Greg tries to impress his impossible-to-please father-in-law, the more he focks up.<\/p>\n

A lot of embarrassing stuff happens to Greg over the course of Little Fockers<\/strong>, but none of it comes close to Jack\u2019s mistaken belief that he\u2019s having an affair with an attractive drug company rep named Andi Garcia (Alba, Sin City). He\u2019s not; it\u2019s strictly business. That\u2019s the way he sees it, at least. He\u2019s helping her promote a new erectile dysfunction pill called \u201cSustengo\u201d in order to earn extra money so he can afford to enroll the twins in an exclusive pre-school. He\u2019s the only one who can\u2019t see Andi wants to fock his brains out.<\/p>\n

It would be easier to tell you what works in Little Fockers<\/strong> than list its many faults. It\u2019s not a long list; it contains only two items, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. They play Greg\u2019s parents Bernie and Roz. She\u2019s a TV sex therapist who frequently talks about her son on her nationally televised show. He\u2019s off in Spain learning how to flamenco dance. They\u2019re the best things about Little Fockers<\/strong> even if they literally phone it in until the final 20 minutes. The only time I even cracked a smile is when they were around. It\u2019s a fairly dismal affair otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Since I\u2019ve already established how grossly unfunny Little Fockers<\/strong> is, let\u2019s move on to other things. I have a real problem with Owen Wilson\u2019s character, Pam\u2019s ex-beau Kevin. He\u2019s one of those annoying, nice guy, New Age-y overachievers who think they have the answers to all life\u2019s problems. If you ask Jack, he\u2019s the one that got away. He\u2019d love it if Pam dumped Greg and married Kevin. He calls it a \u201ccourse correction\u201d. Here\u2019s where I take issue. Is everybody (except Greg) so dense that they don\u2019t see this guy for what he really is? He\u2019s not a family friend, HE\u2019S A FOCKING STALKER! He has a new tattoo of Pam on his back. What normal person does that? He\u2019s an ideal candidate for a permanent restraining order. He needs to go away and stay gone.<\/p>\n

By the looks of things, I\u2019d have to say that Little Fockers<\/strong> is the victim of post-production tampering. It\u2019s less a movie than a series of scenes strung together by the flimsiest of plotlines. It\u2019s choppy and disjointed. It doesn\u2019t flow smoothly. If you need more concrete proof, ask yourself why a star of Harvey Keitel\u2019s stature is relegated to such a minor role. He plays a crooked contractor working on the house Greg just bought. His only significant scene is when he gets into it with De Niro\u2019s character over the slow, slow progress of the renovations. His character serves absolutely NO purpose to the plot. Laura Dern (Blue Velvet) also gets the short shrift as the principal of the pre-school. Other than a few amusing reaction shots during the twins\u2019 interviews, she doesn\u2019t serve Little Fockers<\/strong> in any way. HOWEVER, if you want to talk about a really egregious waste of talent, I give you the divine Blythe Danner as Jack\u2019s wife. She goes horribly underused.<\/p>\n

If I was so inclined, I could easily describe Little Fockers<\/strong> in one word, LAME! Directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy), every joke lands with a dull thud. He gives us tired gags involving bloody wounds, projectile vomiting and being caught in awkward positions, the worst being little Henry walking in on Greg giving Jack a shot of adrenaline after suffering an embarrassing side effect of Sustengo. Guess where he\u2019s giving him the shot? Hint, it\u2019s not the ass. The situations, some of which wouldn\u2019t even cut it on an episode of Three\u2019s Company, are devoid of humor. Personally, I don\u2019t like movies where a well-meaning person keeps getting humiliated either by his own hand or someone else\u2019s. It makes me feel uncomfortable. Stiller plays this character time and time again. Dude, it\u2019s getting old. De Niro looks like he\u2019s had it with playing Jack Byrnes. If I had to guess, I\u2019d say he and several of his co-stars are simply fulfilling contractual obligations. They don\u2019t really want to be here. I share their sentiment. This is one family reunion that should be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n

I simply cannot end my review without one more play on words. Here it is. Little Fockers<\/strong> is a complete fock-up.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little Fockers (2010)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal-Paramount\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (mature sexual humor throughout, language, some drug content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Paul Weitz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Stephen Trask\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Remi Adefarasin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 22, 2010 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-this-sucks-so-bad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Little-Fockers-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9605,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9406\/revisions\/9605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}