Let’s start with a strong statement: Little Fockers is a bad movie. It didn’t need to be, but it is. The film is the third in the series and by far the worst, despite having a stellar cast and crew. The defining moment of how bad this film is occurs when family patriarch Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) is shown with an out of control erection and Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) has to give him an injection to counteract the effects. Of course at this moment his young son enters the bathroom and freaks out at the site of his grandfather and father in this situation, hilarious!
The Film
Little Fockers, as mentioned, is the third film in the series started by Meet the Parents. At the time it was an interesting concept, an ex-CIA agent (Jack Byrnes) is suspicious of his daughter Pam’s (Teri Polo) new boyfriend (Greg Focker) and puts him through the wringer and he needs to earn their trust. The first movie was fresh, unexpected and a nice turn for De Niro. Next we had Meet the Fockers, where once again Jack is mistrustful of Greg once he meets his family and he has to regain their trust. In Little Fockers perhaps there is something new to explore? Perhaps a fresh take on these eclectic families? Nope, this movie simply retreads the same tired concepts, but in a completely unfulfilling way.
The movie starts with Jack Byrnes upset at the fact that one of his son-in-laws, Dr. Bob (Tomas McCarthy), has cheated on his wife and they are now separated. Jack is very upset about this change in his family’s ‘circle of trust’ and this leads to him to having a minor heart attack. Shaken by his mortality he contacts Greg and lets him know that he is to be the next patriarch and dubs Greg the GodFocker. The whole sequence and conversation was completely ridiculous and the fact that Greg is proud of the term and Jacks choice is laughable, in a bad way.
Part of Jack's message to Greg is that he needs to have a nice home and a stable income source if he is to be the GodFocker (I groaned each and every time the term was used). Greg is now the head of the hospitals nursing unit and thinking about the money issue Greg agrees to help promote a new Erectile Dysfunction drug pitched to him by the beautiful and quirky Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba). This of course is where all the misunderstandings begin. Jack finds the E.D. medication and Greg hides what he is doing so as not to lead jack to believe money is an issue. Jack then suspects that Greg and Andi are having an affair. Further compounded by the fact that Andi goes little nuts and hits on Greg, Jack of course sees them and assumes Greg is cheating.
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