''Meet the Fockers'' is a 2004 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Jay Roach Mathew Jay Roach (born June 14, 1957) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the ''Austin Powers'' film series, '' Meet the Parents'', ''Dinner for Schmucks'', '' The Campaign'', '' Trumbo'', and '' Bombshell''. Roach also ea ...

and the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the 2000 film '' Meet the Parents''. The film stars

Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...

(who was also one of the film's producers),

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of the comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as ...

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers List ...

Blythe Danner Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on '' Huff'' (2004–2006), and a ...

and

Teri Polo Theresa Elizabeth Polo (born June 1, 1969) is an American actress. She starred as Pam Byrnes-Focker in the ''Meet the Parents'' trilogy and played the role of police officer Stef Adams Foster in the Freeform series '' The Fosters'' (2013–201 ...

. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office hit, grossing $522 million worldwide. It was followed by a sequel, ''

Little Fockers ''Little Fockers'' (known as ''Meet the Parents: Little Fockers'' in the United Kingdom and Southeast Asia) is a 2010 American comedy film and the third and final film in the ''Meet the Parents'' film series, serving as a sequel to ''Meet the Par ...

'', in 2010.

Plot

Two years after the events of

the first film ''The First Film'' is a 2015 British documentary film about cinema pioneer Louis Le Prince, made by David Nicholas Wilkinson. It argues the case that Le Prince, rather than the Lumière brothers, was the true inventor of moving pictures, making ...

, Gaylord "Greg" Focker and his fiancée Pam Byrnes decide to introduce their parents to each other. They first fly to

Oyster Bay, New York The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three towns which make up Nassau County, New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County to extend from the North Shore to the South Shore o ...

, to pick up Pam's father, retired CIA operative Jack Byrnes, her mother Dina, and Pam's one-year-old nephew, Jack "Little Jack" Banks (the son of Bob and Debbie Banks). Rather than going to the airport as planned, Jack decides to drive the family to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

to meet Greg's parents in his new RV. Once Greg, Pam, and Pam’s parents arrive in Miami, they are greeted by Greg's eccentric but fun-loving and amiable father, Bernie Focker, a lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-dad, and Greg's mother, Roz, who is a sex therapist for elderly couples. While Dina bonds with the Fockers, small cracks begin to form between Jack and the Fockers, due to their contrasting personalities. The gathering gets off to a bad start when a chase between the Fockers' dog, Moses, and the Byrneses' cat, Jinx, culminates with Jinx flushing Moses down the RV's toilet, forcing Bernie to destroy it to save Moses. Later, Bernie accidentally injures Jack's back during a game of touch football. Pam informs Greg that she is pregnant, and the two decide to keep it a secret until they are married. Jack again becomes suspicious of Greg's character when they are introduced to the Fockers' former housekeeper, Isabel Villalobos. Bernie reveals that Greg lost his virginity to Isabel 15 years earlier. Isabel's 15-year-old son Jorge, who has never met his father and bears a striking resemblance to Greg, catches the attention of Jack after he repairs the toilet in the RV. Meanwhile, Roz, Bernie and Dina learn Pam is pregnant, but promise not to tell Jack. Greg is left alone to babysit Little Jack, whom Jack has been raising via the

Ferber method The Ferber method, or Ferberization, is a technique invented by Richard Ferber to solve infant sleep problems. It involves "sleep-training" children to self-soothe by allowing the child to cry for a predetermined amount of time at intervals before ...

. Despite Jack's strict instructions to leave Little Jack to self-soothe, Greg is unable to stand listening to Little Jack's cries and attempts to cheer him up by hugging him and acting humorously, but inadvertently teaches him the word "asshole". Greg answers a brief phone call from Roz, and Little Jack is let out of the

playpen A playpen is a piece of furniture in which an infant or young toddler (typically those less than tall and ) is placed to prevent self-harm when her/his parent or guardian is occupied or away. The earliest use of the word "playpen" cited in the ...

by Jinx and he glues his hands to a bottle of

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...

. Jack resumes his spying on Greg and sends Greg and Jorge's hair samples for a

DNA test Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

, while inviting Jorge to Greg and Pam's engagement party in hopes of getting Greg to admit he is Jorge's father. At the engagement party, Jack, who assumes that Greg knows about Jorge and has deliberately been keeping him a secret from Pam, introduces him to Jorge. Later, when Greg denies knowing anything about Jorge, Jack still refuses to believe him and drugs him with a shot of

truth serum "Truth serum" is a colloquial name for any of a range of psychoactive drugs used in an effort to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling to provide it otherwise. These include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate ...

. While giving a toast, Greg uncontrollably blurts out that Pam is pregnant and that Jorge is his son before losing consciousness. The next morning, Pam questions Greg about Jorge, and Greg promises that he knew nothing about him before the previous evening. Pam believes him, and is willing to work things out with him. Jack has reached his breaking point and demands that Pam and Dina leave with him. Dina refuses and reveals that Jack had drugged Greg. Everyone turns against Jack and informs him that they were all aware of Pam's pregnancy. Shocked and hurt, Jack leaves with his grandson. Bernie and Greg pursue Jack but are tasered and arrested by Officer Vern LeFlore for speeding and refusing to remain in Bernie’s car when pulled over. Meanwhile, Jack receives the results of the DNA test that determines Jorge's father is really a baseball player who also resembles Greg. When Jack sees Bernie and Greg being pulled over, he attempts to defend them, but LeFlore tasers and arrests him as well. In their cell, Greg, Jack, and Bernie are released by Judge Ira, a client of Roz. Before they leave, Greg asks that Jack and Bernie stop their feud. Jack admits that he made a mistake regarding Jorge and explains his past career in the CIA to Bernie before apologizing for his actions. Greg and Pam are married that weekend by Pam's former fiancé, Kevin, who is now an ordained interfaith minister. At the conclusion, Jack reviews the tape to find out why the Ferber method failed. It turned out that Little Jack was comforted by Roz each time he cried, who took care of him and let him nap. Bernie was seen feeding him chocolates and angering Jack. The climax ends with Greg playing with Little Jack.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported that 38% of 164 sampled critics gave ''Meet the Fockers'' positive reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The site's consensus is "Talented cast is wasted as the movie is content with recycling jokes from its predecessor, ''Meet the Parents''." At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score out of 100 with reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 41 based on 34 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average rating of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Box office

The film was a commercial success and is currently the second highest-grossing film starring

. The film grossed $46,120,980 on its opening weekend in North America (5,000 screens at 3,518 theaters, averaging $13,110 per theater, or $9,224 per screen). By the end of the film's 149 days of release, it had grossed a total of $279,261,160 in North America, and $243,396,776 in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $522,657,936, with an estimated 44 million tickets sold in the US. The film's budget was $80 million.

Awards and nominations

*2005: Casting Society Of America, USA: Nominated for ''Best Feature Film Casting: Comedy''. *2005:

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...

: Nominated for ''Choice Movie: Blush'', ''Choice Movie Actor: Comedy'', ''Choice Movie Actor: Comedy'', ''Choice Movie: Liar''. *2005: MTV Movie Awards Won: ''Best Comedic Performance''. *2005: ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards: Won ''Top Box Office Films''. *2005:

MTV Movie Awards The MTV Movie & TV Awards (formerly the MTV Movie Awards) is a film and television awards show presented annually on MTV. The first MTV Movie Awards were presented in 1992. The ceremony was renamed the MTV Movie & TV Awards for its 26th editi ...

in Mexico: Nominated for ''Best International Movie''.

Sequel

A sequel to the film, titled ''

'', was released on December 22, 2010.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{John Hamburg 2004 films 2004 comedy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films American comedy films American interfaith romance films American sequel films Films about weddings Films set in Miami Films set in Florida Films scored by Randy Newman Films with screenplays by John Hamburg Films produced by Robert De Niro Films directed by Jay Roach Universal Pictures films DreamWorks Pictures films