Meet The Fockers

DVD Rating: ***1/2

Reviewed by: Gary Duncan

Read Angus Wolfe Murray's film review of Meet The Fockers
Meet The Fockers
""

What's apparent from these extras is that everyone involved in the movie had a ball making it. Surprising, you might think, given the big-name cast. Stiller, De Niro, Hoffman, Streisand, all in one movie? That's a lot of ego, but they all got on, and thankfully we're spared the gushing eulogies about how wonderful it was to work with each other.

Instead, they take the piss. In the Bloopers - in my opinion you can never get enough of these, and we're treated to a good 11 minutes of them here - Hoffman fluffs a line and starts hamming it up with his "Are you talking to me?" skit. De Niro, with his back to the camera, doesn't join in, but you can't blame him. You suspect he's heard that one a couple of times over the years.

Copy picture

Surprisingly it's a tongue-tied De Niro, the consummate professional, who makes the most gaffes, forgetting his lines, collapsing into fits of giggles and generally being very un-De Niro like. In one scene, he has five or six attempts at spelling out the name "Villalobos" - he gets there eventually but still doesn't sound convinced.

In the Focker Family Portrait, the principals discuss their characters, with Hoffman colourfully describing the hippy liberal Bernie as "the kind of guy who wouldn't mind leaving the door open on an aeroplane while he took a dump just so he could carry on with the conversation".

Matt Meets the Fockers is a bit of a missed opportunity, with interviewer Matt Laur, a co-host on NBC's Today Show, getting little out of the main players. Old friends Streisand and Hoffman, however, take an entertaining trip down memory lane to the days when they were struggling young thesps at the same acting school, with Hoffman having to work as a janitor and Streisand babysitting to make ends meet.

De Niro, as is his habit, remains tight-lipped on his private life, though Laur questions him about his marriage and how that informed the way he played Jack Burns. It's a nice try, but Hoffman just laughs and says there's absolutely no way that De Niro will play ball. Hoffman's right and De Niro keeps schtum.

Inside the Litter Box is an amusing tongue-in-cheek piece on Jinx the cat, with director Jay Roach saying success has gone to Jinx's head after his scene-stealing turn in Meet The Parents, and now the feline with the inflated ego even has his own trailer and director's chair. Stiller, playing along, says Jinx is even more intimidating than De Niro.

Reviewed on: 18 May 2005
Share this with others on...
Meet The Fockers packshot
Comedy sequel sees clash of the in-laws.
Amazon link

Product Code: 8302139

Region: 2

Ratio: 1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Extras: Deleted scenes (20 scenes plus 10 branch scenes to create extended edition); bloopers; Inside the Litter Box: Behind the Scenes with Jinx the Cat; The Manary Gland; Fockers Family Portrait; Adventures of a Baby Wrangler; Matt Lauer Meets the Fockers; commentary with director Jay Roach.


Search database:



DJDT

Versions

Time

Settings from settings.local

Headers

Request

SQL queries from 1 connection

Templates (8 rendered)

Cache calls from 2 backends

Signals