In what I guess could be termed the rich man’s Dharma and Greg, Ben Stiller reprises his role as the tragically named male nurse Gaylord Focker, a nice but goofy fellow desperately trying to remain in the good graces of his future father-in-law, retired CIA agent Jack Byrnes (De Niro). This time around, Gaylord gets help screwing things up from his kooky folks, a stay-at-home dad (Hoffman) and his sex therapist wife (Barbra Streisand). Some very familiar humour abounds.

If you’re interested in seeing this flick I would imagine it’s because you’ve seen its prequel, MEET THE PARENTS. Well I’m here today to tell you that if you’ve seen MEET THE PARENTS, you’ve already pretty much seen MEET THE FOCKERS. The film starts off much like its predecessor, which is to say that it actually starts off very funny. Unfortunately, MEET THE FOCKERS soon slams into a brick wall named Hoffman and Streisand and it’s nothing but a slow trudge with intermittent bouts of snickering from thereon. It’s not so much that I have a problem with Hoffman and Streisand themselves although I usually cringe at the simple thought of Babs. It’s simply that their characters, who are supposed to be the kooky, zany, funny hippies in the story, are so totally devoid of any originality that whatever good the rest brings is sucked down a vortex of utter predictability that quite simply… sucks.

The sole redemption of this film remains the interaction between De Niro and Stiller whose characters are so far apart on the personality spectrum that they may as well be different species. Never mind that most of the jokes are rehashes from MEET THE PARENTS, they’re the kind of humor that never dies especially to anyone who can relate to the son-in-law/father-in-law relationship. Some of the slapstick stuff that happen all around was also a riot and I can even remember really belting out some laughs during a few occasions such as Gaylord’s babysitting adventure and a side story in which Jack tries to prove that Gaylord may have a few skeletons in his closet. Unfortunately those moments, however funny they might have been, were wrapped around too many of the very standard “odd couple” gags in a movie that ran a good twenty minutes too long (118 minutes) to even come close to being as funny as its predecessor. Too bad though although if you don’t mind waiting fifteen minutes for each great joke to come up, then you might get a kick out of this.

Video: The widescreen (1.85:1) edition packs some good quality to it courtesy of its crisp anamorphic transfer. It’s actually so clear that in one scene you can actually read De Niro’s paycheck in his back pocket.

Audio: Great audio quality delivered in English, Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.

Deleted Scenes (15 mins): The DVD contains 20 deleted scenes of which ten are reinserted into the Extended Edition of the movie which you can also find on this disc. They range from sappy to lame to hilarious but most of them never really get past “funny”.

Bloopers (11 mins): I honestly can’t think of too many types of special features that anger me more than the blooper reels (actually I can think of many but still…) You’ll get the usual fodder of flubbed lines and on-set crack ups here, most of them courtesy of Hoffman, De Niro and Streisand.

Inside the Litter Box: Behind-the-Scenes with Jinx the Cat (4 mins): An inside look at what it’s like to work with a furry star, consisting mainly of some phony comments from cast and crew members. Cute at first but a tad long considering it’s the same joke that comes back every 10 seconds.

The Manary Gland (3 mins): A brief segment with Prop Master Eugene McCarthy who explains the whys and hows of a prop used by De Niro to breast feed his grandson. I’ve got to admit, I’m usually not one for crude humor but seeing De Niro with a tit almost brought tears to my eyes.

Full Length Commentary Track with Director Jay Roach and Editor/Co-Producer Jon Poll: This was definitely not one of the most entertaining tracks I’ve heard but at least what was said stayed relevant and they did put a lot of the gags within the context of MEET THE PARENTS as well which was cool, especially if it’s a while since you’ve seen it. Other than that it was very standard with discussions about production, the shoot, the cast and some anecdotes about life on the set.

Fockers’ Family Portrait (6 mins): A set of three vignettes describing each of Bernie Focker (Hoffman), Roz Focker (Streisand) and Gaylord Focker (Stiller) with the actors themselves giving their thoughts on their respective characters. In the grand scheme of things: irrelevant.

The Adventures of a Baby Wrangler (6 mins): A pretty neat feature focusing on the two young twins who played LJ, Jack Byrnes’ grandson. There’s nothing really surprising that’s said, just that the two little kids are damn cute.

Matt Lauer Meets The Fockers (8 mins): NBC shill Matt Lauer interviews the cast members about the film in a staged interview which turns out to be a lot of back-patting and declarations that this was the greatest film ever for all to have worked on but look closely at De Niro’s face once in a while and you’ll notice he seems like not only does he want nothing to do with this whole thing, but he’d also like to go all Jimmy Conway on Lauer’s ass!!

The rest of the stuff consists of Cast and Crew Bios and the Theatrical Trailer for the flick.

If it wasn’t for fond memories of it’s predecessor, this film probably would have made a hasty exit from the big screen but at least a few funny moments courtesy of Stiller and De Niro manage to rescue a bit of what is overall a rather flat comedy that plays it safe with some potty humor and big name actors. Save yourself the trouble and rent MEET THE PARENTS again, you’ll get all that’s good in MEET THE FOCKERS with none of the bad.