Meet the Fockers

The new film ‘Meet the Fockers’ had some good moments but it never rose to any great heights.
I found it too predictable and without any real charm.I guess everyone knows the scenario but for the record…..it’s time for Pam’s family to meet Greg’s family. Greg joins the Byrnes family as they take off in their campervan with the destination, Greg’s parents’ home. The characters are well lined up…We have Robert De Niro playing the control freak , former CIA operator Jack Byrnes, who comes against the heart on the sleeve Dustin Hoffman playing Dad Bernie Focker, and his trendy sex therapist wife, Roz, played by none other than Barbara Streisand.

I guess one could define ‘Meet the Fockers’ as a comedy playing against opposites; the archness and conservativeness of the Byrnes family as against the barely contained outrageousness and warm and fuzzies of the Focker family. Add to that the differences between the Byrnes cat and the Focker’s dog and you’ve got the gist of the movie.

Ok I’ll get to the point… It kind of turned me of to see such a talented actor as Robert De Niro playing such a limp sort of role. Barbara Streisand did a pretty good try at a Bette Middler kind of role.
The other thing that really irritated me about this film was that as it steered its course from home I noticed how the films saccharine levels rose dangerously high. Why even Robert De Niro’s character was becoming warm and fuzzy by the end?!
I couldn’t buy the change in his character, and just wasn’t sold by this ordinary film with the killer cast!