Focked Up
Published January 11, 2005
I was much anticipating Ben Stiller's sequel to Meet the Parents, particularly because of how well the first installment was received. I figured Meet the Fockers would do a decent job of upping that, especially with the help of Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand. After all, casting well-known Hollywood icons is a simple but effective way of drawing in crowds. Unfortunately, it isn't a surefire way of guaranteeing a film's success.
Without discredit to the actors — most of whom I felt did a fine job; Hoffman, in particular — the film fell flat on its face because it slipped and slid into a double-whammy: being a sequel, and being a Ben Stiller sequel.
For one, it ran smack into the sequel rut, where (a) stabs at old jokes fell flat, (b) the plot wasn't quite carried on beyond a simple idea and (c) the viewers are left hoping and praying there wouldn't be a third installation.
With Ben Stiller's touch, what we have is toilet humour repeated past novelty, where its predictability also spawns boredom and annoyance, simultaneously.
A perfect example of the rehashed old joke from the first part is that corny eye-pointy thing Robert De Niro does to signal he's "watching" Ben Stiller's character. While that's all fine and very FBI-esque, when the baby in the film starts at it, it just gets completely trite. A mini-me of Robert De Niro? Hey, that idea only worked once in a totally separate comedy.
The idea of old people getting sexy/sexual is an old stock way of making people squirm in their seats — old people too, ironically. This was used, for example, in Duplex, when the elderly lady gets a kiss from Stiller, much to the audience's predicted revulsion. But when you centre the entire film around that concept, from right at the start of Streisand's appearance, to even the clinching moment of the plot's turn, where the elderly judge mentions his gratitude to her for her "help" with his sex life, one starts getting numb to the entire concept.
And if you start being okay with a concept you were physically rejecting earlier, you ought to be worried about the subliminally sinister effects of an already superficially-sickening film.
Sure, the plot progressed with formulaic Hollywood flow: problem, process to solving it, nice happy, resolved ending where baddie (ooh) sees the light. Sure, the cast was stellar, to say the least. Sure, slapstick comedy works and is used to that effect.
But all that could not save a film that made me feel like it was just a money-making vehicle, at the very crux of it. Ben Stiller's had some gems in the past, but this just gleams dully like a poor imitation of them would. Jokes and themes that worked before worked before; copying them over just leaves the audience disatisfied with the awkward shift in context.
- Focked Up
- Published: January 11, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Comedy
- Writer: Victoria Ho
- Victoria Ho's BC Writer page
- Victoria Ho's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
thanks Victoria and nice to see you back. I haven't seen this yet, but yourreview fits my personal predispositions.
Albanesse, I agree with your characterizations, except I really liked "Envy," much to my surprise, which definitely went in directions contrary to expectations - it's well worth checking out.
maybe i'm gettin' too old & cranky but i just don't get this kind of comedy anymore.
a friend of mine ranted for weeks to me about 'meet the parents'. i finally borrowed it from him and didn't laugh once.
the supposed funny bits are telegraphed miles in advance.
Maybe I wil give Envy a shot... just hard to get Ben back into my good standings. However I never thought I would like "Bubble Boy"... and that movie cracks me up. Let's hope they dont make a bubble boy 2 with Dinero as the mafiaesque research scientist.
most refresing about Envy is that neither Stiller nor Jack Black played their standard characters
Thanks Eric, it's good to be back. ;)
What Stiller does, I feel, is exactly the same as Adam Sandler's schtick, which is to do two expressions -- often to puzzlingly good reception: (a) Whimpering, subdued goodguy-ness (b) Yelling, inner rage boiling over into a sometimes-comical rant/cry.
It worked a couple of times, but wow... it's becoming a little "Michael Learns to Rock", if you know what I mean. :
There should be a Robin Williams clinic for these type of actors with Lost in Your One Character Syndrome... LYCS - pronounced "licks"
how about "Stuck in Your One Character Syndroms"... "sicks"? :D
Nice! I think we can market the cure for it. A good kick in the ass as well as viewing with an Appalachian audience.
you focked up cause u a ass hole
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/24138)
Let me begin by stating that I have not seen this flick, I am just tired of Ben Stiller. I think he has done some very funny stuff, but now he is just doing the same shtick over and over. The only movie of his that I think still holds up well is "Flirting with Disaster". Even the first Meet the Parents did not impress me. I think it was just marketable casting . DeNiro (Dinero as I call his acting lately, gotta pay for the new house I guess) used his standard Mafiosa character. I don't think the part was really funny. I think people were laughing at Dinero who is a larger than life mobster to most playing a dad is what is funny. His FBI/CIA operative stuff was more "criminal" in most of it's elements rather than an Ollie North type. Now to Ben... I am just tired of his stuttering and strained flexing acting. Does anyone have to see him flip out in a rant and then break down again. Mumbling to himself that he "will show" the dad/boss/cool friend/any other friggin authority figure. "Starsky & Hutch" sucked ass, "Envy" I could not even watch the trailer, "Dodgeball" heard it was good, but I think that might have been good casting also.. and to have him hit on his wife as a character. Damn I know she is cutie.. but does he have to show it off!
Just a rant... and please excuse any and all spelling, grammer and or thought errors.