Today's Review: Little Fockers

Oh waaaait, now I get it. Focker sounds like "fucker"! Ha haaaaa, now it all makes sense.

Actually, I lied. I got that joke in the first movie, as i'm sure many people did. So why they felt the need to stretch it out in various forms for two whole other movies is beyond me. Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed Meet The Parents. It was a pretty good movie. This could have been because I was 13 at the time and thought that pretty much everything naughty or unfortunate was hilarious, but still. It had a nice formula. Man meets father in law, father in law puts man through several unpleasant situations, judging if he is good enough for father in law's daughter over some other golden boy vying for her affection, there's a big hilarious misunderstanding, but at the end it all gets sorted out and everyone's happy.

Meet The Parents was a big hit, so obviously a sequel was inevitable. This time man's parents meet aforementioned father in law, more unpleasant situations arise, there's a hilarious misunderstanding, but at the end it all gets sorted out and everyone is happy. Except this time it's less funny and the whole movie is completely chock full of "Focker" jokes. Well done, can we leave it alone now? For a while, we thought so.

But no! Now it's time for Little Fockers to step up and prove just how bad it can get. Guess what happens? We already know both sets of parents, so how about we just take the father in law, and make the whole movie about aforementioned father in law putting man in unpleasant situations, before they have a big hilarious misunderstanding that gets resolved in the end. It's the same thing as before, except this time of course it's three times less original. Pretty much every joke is recycled from a previous movie, which just makes me think "Oh yeah, they said that ten years ago! But it wasn't really funny then either". Even the plot just seems like a Frankenstein's monster creation from the dismembered remains of the first two movies, it has all the mistrust and awkward position of Meet The Parents, with the added embarrassing, sexually forward parents and naughty children of Meet The Fockers.

But in the end, I suppose it's not a complete garbled mess. At least the actors are trying, still carrying on their roles with some passion. But I guess it's all for the money. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason this movie exists. "Hey guys, remember those movies you paid to see several years ago? Here's that sequel you never wanted, but that you'll want to see anyway because it makes you nostalgic." But I guess this really is the end. Until we get "Meet The Focker's Fockers" in 15 years time, anyway.

My rating: 2/5