Three “Fockers” is one Focker too many. Serving mostly as a retirement-funding plan for some old stars who don’t work much anymore, “Little Fockers” is the worst in a farce franchise that already relied too much on the cheapest sight gags for effect. How bad is it? You mean, besides the fact that it barely has a premise? You mean, besides the banal, supposedly funny scenes of projectile vomiting at the dinner table, blood-spurting knife wounding at the dinner table, and knock-down drag-out fist-fighting between family members?
| Little Fockers |
| 1 out of 5 Stars |
| » Stars: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman |
| » Director: Paul Weitz |
| » Rated PG-13 for mature sexual humor throughout, language and some drug content |
| » Running Time: 98 minutes |
It’s so bad that a master thespian — once the Raging Bull, the Taxi Driver and the Godfather-as-a-Young-Man — appears with a gigantic, erectile dysfunction pill-induced “side effect” in his pants. Is there anything more to say about the third installment in a popular series that made its headliner/producer De Niro, a.k.a. psycho father-in-law Jack Byrnes, richer?
Yes, there is more to say: He and the rest of the former high class A-listers who read this script (by John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey) and agreed to the paycheck anyway should be ashamed! That means you, Blythe Danner, who has appeared since the first “Meet the Parents” as Jack’s wife. And that means you, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, returning after their introduction as the other in-laws in the last sequel, “Meet The Fockers.” That also means you, Harvey Keitel and Laura Dern, two newcomers in tiny parts with distinguished but faded feature film careers.
It’s a recession. I get it. Even great artists need to pay their mortgages. But can’t someone draw the line on dumb, vulgar mass entertainment? Even if this is what America wants to watch, should Hollywood’s emeritus best be the ones to give it to them?
Of course, lame-stream buffoonery is expected of a comedian like Ben Stiller. He reprises his ongoing role as the ethnic loser Greg Focker, trying to please the insanely paranoid father of his Waspy wife Pamela (Teri Polo).
This time, the very thin excuses for the Byrnes/Focker reunion are: 1) Jack has a heart condition and wants to be sure Greg can head the family when he dies. And, 2) The twin grandchildren are about to turn five years old. To add more conflict, Owen Wilson returns as an old rival and Jessica Alba joins the cast to play potential interlopers into Greg and Pam’s marriage.
But there’s nothing about anyone here that’s worth a Focker.
