Little Fockers (Universal Pictures)
Losing Steam
Little Fockers is the third in the series of movies starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro as battling in-laws. The first of the series was hilarious; the second was good but not great: the third, well the series is running out of steam and comedy entertainment. Stiller and De Niro are still good in their roles but the plot circumstances and the lines in the script are getting more heavy-handed.
In this film the Byrnes, who are Pams parents, visit the Fockers to celebrate Greg and Pams (Stiller and Teri Polo) twins fifth birthday. Jack and Dina Byres (De Niro and Blythe Danner) are anxious to also see the Fockers’ new home, which is being renovated. Gregs career is going nicely and he has been asked to sponsor a new drug for his pharmaceutical rep Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba).
Eventually Pams old flame Kevin (Owen Wilson) shows up on the scene as do Gregs parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand). Laura Dern makes an appearance as a private school principal, and Harvey Keitel has a cameo as the crew boss on the house renovations.
The movie progresses like a patchwork quilt a scene here and then a scene there. Many scenes appear tacked on for no good purpose and others are just crude humor in bad taste. Nobody comes out of this movie looking good. The sad thing is this cast is talented enough, and director Paul Weitz is talented enough, and script writers John Hamberg and Larry Stuckey are talented enough to make this movie mildly amusing at the least and hugely entertaining at the most. They all are certainly better than the results that show up on the screen.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and crude humor.
This movie is one that doesnt trust its audience. More of the jokes and situations that were set up in the first two films would probably have been appreciated by audiences for the new film. It didnt need Alba, Dern or Keitel. Perhaps featuring Polo or Danner is a more substantive role would have been a good road to follow. Or even having the four grandparents interact more might have been a good thing.
But by fragmenting everything the movie loses its charm. There is too much Owen Wilson and too little Dustin Hoffman. There is too much Jessica Alba and not enough Blythe Danner. The wrong choices were made over and over again.
If there is another Fockers movie then the aim should be to make the central people more characters than caricatures, and also to let the story be centered on them without all the extraneous stuff. There is more than enough talent to go around, so use it.
I scored Little Fockers a childish 5 out of 10.
