Meet the Fockers is one of those wonderful rare creatures in Hollywood.
It's a sequel that's actually as fresh and funny as the film that spawned it. In 2000's Meet the Parents, poor Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) had to meet the parents of his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Terri Polo).
Turned out her father Jack Byrne (Robert De Niro) was a former CIA agent intent on proving Greg was not suitable for Pam.
In Meet the Fockers, old Jack gets a taste of his own medicine.
He's the one who gets humiliated when the Byrnes have to travel to Florida to meet Greg's wildly unorthodox parents.
Bernie Focker (Dustin Hoffman) practised law just long enough to conceive Greg and then retired to become a house husband.
Roz Focker (Barbra Streisand) earned all the money they needed as a prominent sex therapist who makes Dr. Ruth seem prudish and conservative.
This meeting of dire opposites fuelled five seasons of Dharma & Greg on TV and is a running joke on Everybody Loves Raymond.
What makes it work in Meet the Fockers is the inspired casting.
Hoffman and Streisand seem to be having the time of their lives playing Bernie and Roz and it's nearly impossible not to get caught up in the merriment.
Streisand has been away from the screen for eight years and that's far too long. She lights up a screen with her incandescent persona.
What's even more tragic is that Streisand hasn't done a full-out comedy since 1972's What's Up Doc?. It's easy to forget this is one truly funny lady who has impeccable comic timing.
She's matched at every turn by a rambunctious Hoffman, the dead-pan De Niro and the heroically sweet Blythe Danner as Dina Byrnes.
We can be eternally grateful that De Niro, Streisand, Hoffman and Danner didn't heed that old warning about sharing screen time with animals and children.
The cat, dog and baby in Meet the Fockers are supreme scene stealers and director Jay Roach knew just how much of them to use so they didn't overstay their welcome.
Stiller is funniest when Greg's world keeps falling apart around him which it does at regular intervals in Meet the Fockers. There's a particularly funny football game and an even more frenetic babysitting ordeal.
Roach and his writers still haven't found much for Polo to do so she seems more like set dressing than a real character.
Meet the Fockers offers some huge belly laughs, but more importantly they are linked by streams of chuckles.
These really are a bunch of eccentrics worth meeting any time of the year, but especially over the holiday season when families traditionally get together.
Invite yourselves over to the Fockers.
By comparison any other family gathering will seem blissfully sedate.
(This film is rated PG.)
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