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Meet the Fockers

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Meet the Fockers
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJay Roach
Screenplay byJim Herzfeld
John Hamburg
Story byJim Herzfeld
Marc Hyman
Produced byJane Rosenthal
Robert De Niro
Jay Roach
StarringRobert De Niro
Ben Stiller
Dustin Hoffman
Barbra Streisand
Blythe Danner
Teri Polo
Tim Blake Nelson
CinematographyJohn Schwartzman
Edited byJon Poll
Lee Haxall
Alan Baumgarten
Music byRandy Newman
Production
companies
Tribeca Productions
Everyman Pictures
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
DreamWorks Pictures
Release date
  • December 22, 2004 (2004-12-22)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$80 million
Box office$516,642,939[1]

Meet the Fockers is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Jay Roach and the sequel to Meet the Parents. The film stars Robert De Niro (who was also one of the film's producers), Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo. It was followed by a sequel, Little Fockers, in 2010.

Plot

Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) and his fiancée Pam Byrnes (Polo) decide to introduce their parents to each other. They first fly to Oyster Bay, New York, on Long Island, to pick up Pam's father, retired CIA operative Jack Byrnes (De Niro), her mother Dina (Danner) and one-year-old nephew Little Jack (the son of Bob and Debbie Banks). But rather than going to the airport as planned, Jack decides to drive the family to Miami to meet the Fockers in his new RV.

Once they arrive, they are greeted by Greg's eccentric but fun-loving and amiable father, Bernie (Hoffman), and mother, Roz (Streisand), who is a sex therapist for elderly couples. Worried that Jack may be put off by the Fockers' lifestyle, Greg convinces Roz to pretend that she is a yoga instructor for the weekend. Though Jack and Bernie get off to a good start, small cracks begin to form between Jack and the Fockers, due to their contrasting personalities. Things are made worse when a chase between the Fockers' dog, Moses, and the Byrnes' 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 football.

Pam, meanwhile, informs Greg that she is pregnant, but the two decide to keep it a secret from Jack, who does not know about it. Jack, however, becomes suspicious of Greg's character again when they are introduced to the Fockers' housekeeper, Isabel Villalobos (Alanna Ubach), with whom Bernie reveals Greg had a sexual affair fifteen years before. Jack later takes the RV to Isabel's fifteen-year-old son, Jorge (Ray Santiago), to fix the toilet, but is disturbed by Jorge's striking resemblance to Greg, and the fact that Jorge never met his father, and begins to suspect he may be Greg's son with Isabel. Meanwhile, Roz, Bernie and Dina realize Pam is pregnant, but promise not to tell Jack. Growing envious of Bernie and Roz's active sex life, Dina consults Roz on sex tips in order to seduce Jack, but none of them work.

Things eventually come to a crunch when Greg is left alone to babysit Little Jack, whom Jack has been raising via the Ferber method. Despite Jack's instructions to leave Little Jack to self-soothe, Greg cannot stand to listen to Little Jack's cries and tends to the boy to cheer him up, turning the television on, acting funny and inadvertently teaching Little Jack to say "asshole". A brief phone call from Roz is long enough for Little Jack to wander out of his pen (after Jinx accidentally opens it), put on Scarface and glue his hands to a rum bottle. After a furious argument with the Fockers and his own family (though amends are quickly made), Jack reverts to his old ways and sends Greg and Jorge's hair samples for a DNA test, while inviting Jorge to the Fockers' planned engagement party in the hope of getting Greg to admit he is Jorge's father. At the engagement party, Jack, who assumes that Greg knew about Jorge and has deliberately been keeping him a secret from Pam, introduces Greg to Jorge. Later, when Greg denies knowing Jorge, Jack injects him with a truth serum to make him talk. On stage, Greg blurts out that Pam is pregnant and that Jorge is indeed his son (in a comically Darth Vader-esque manner) before finally passing out.

The next morning, Pam questions Greg about Jorge, and Greg does not confirm or deny that he is Jorge's father, but insists that he knew nothing about him before the previous evening. Pam believes him, and is willing to work things out with him. Jack reaches his breaking point with Greg's dishonesty and demands that Pam and Dina leave the island with him. Dina refuses and reveals Jack's actions to everyone. Everyone turns against Jack, with Pam announcing her intent to marry Greg regardless of him having Jorge with Isabel, and Dina admits that they all knew of Pam's pregnancy. A shocked and hurt Jack leaves with his grandson.

Bernie and Greg give pursuit, but are tasered and arrested by an incompetent deputy sheriff, LeFlore (Tim Blake Nelson), for speeding. Jack returns to defend them after being informed Greg is not Jorge's father (his real father turns out to be a baseball player who also resembles Greg), but the overzealous LeFlore tasers and arrests him as well. In their cell, Greg, Jack and Bernie are released by the local judge, Ira (Shelley Berman), who is a client of Roz and close friend of the Focker family. Before they leave, Greg asks both Jack and Bernie to stop their feud. Jack admits that he made a mistake regarding Jorge and reveals his past career in the CIA to Bernie, before apologizing for his actions and making up with the two of them.

Greg and Pam are married that weekend by Pam's ex-fiancé, Kevin (Owen Wilson), who is now an ordained interfaith minister. During the party, Jack asks Roz for some sex tips and sneaks into the RV with Dina.

During the credits, Jack watches hidden baby-cam footage of the Fockers giving attention to Little Jack over Jack's previous objections: Roz gives Little Jack chocolate, Bernie advises him to use his crying to disagree with everything Jack says, and Greg pretends to drunkenly tell Little Jack to keep it a secret that he left to smoke pot, not answer the phone, when he left Little Jack unattended and that Pam is not really pregnant and only said it so that Jack would let them get married. Greg then pretends to only just discover the camera but then after making mocking gestures at it, Greg reveals that he knew about it all along and none of the things he said before were true.

Cast

Critical response

The film received mixed or average reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 38% of 157 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it got a rating average of 5.2 out of 10.[2] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 with reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 41 based on 34 reviews.[3]

Box office

The film was a commercial success and is currently the highest grossing film starring Robert De Niro.[4] The film grossed $46,120,980 on its opening weekend in North America (3,518 theaters, averaging $13,110 per theater).[5] At the end of the film's 149 days of release, it grossed a total of $279,261,160 in North America, and $237,381,779 in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $516,642,939. The film's budget was $80 million.[6]

Awards and nominations

  • 2005: Casting Society Of America, USA: Nominated for Best Feature Film Casting: Comedy.
  • 2005: Teen Choice Awards: 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.
  • 2006: MTV Movie Awards in Russia: Nominated for Best International Movie.

References

  1. ^ "Meet the Fockers (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  2. ^ "Meet The Fockers (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
  3. ^ "Meet the Fockers reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
  4. ^ "Robert De Niro Movies Box Office Results". www.boxofficemojo.com. IMDb. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  5. ^ "Meet the Fockers (2004) - Weekend Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo.
  6. ^ "Meet the Fockers (2004)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 3, 2010.
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