Meet The Fockers 2004

Critics score:
38 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Hoffman and Streisand are the best things about Meet the Fockers. The movie would have been better off spending more time with them instead of focusing again on the uneasy relationship between eager-to-please Greg and his father-in-law- to-be Jack. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Hoffman and Streisand give energetic, game performances, but the movie provides them with dispiritingly little material. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: Though it's good to see [Stiller] back in his stumbling, bumbling element, it's a bummer to see his element wasted in such stumbling, bumbling gags. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Meet the Fockers takes time to generate comic momentum, but the irresistible energy of Hoffman and Streisand soon refreshes the leftover story line from Parents. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: From the start the jokes are on a different level than the last one: coarse, aggressive, and poorly timed by director Jay Roach. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This film has a lot more heart and it's just a lot of fun throughout with all these wonderful actors. Read more

Jill Vejnoska, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Streisand and especially Hoffman are a hoot. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Meet The Fockers has assembled a historic, once-in-a-lifetime cast, then stranded them in the laziest, most mercenary kind of sequel imaginable. It's like the 1927 Yankees taking on the Special Olympics softball team. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: Often-uproarious. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A resolutely average sequel, several subbasements below the first film in both comic inspiration and energy. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: One of those relatively rare comedies that's at once puerile, charming and very funny throughout. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Director Jay Roach gives the film no visual distinction whatsoever but packs on the jokes with tireless bustle. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: [Hoffman and Streisand] make a wonderful team, but it's too bad the material isn't fresher and more worth their time and yours. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: It is Beavis and Butt-head rewriting The In-Laws, only the scripts for Beavis were much smarter. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Why would you want to meet such a blowsy, bawdy, shticky crew in a low-comedy sequel to Meet the Parents? Two reasons only: Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: There is some fun in watching the veterans mix it up -- De Niro, who looks like he wants to fade into the scenery, Streisand, who tries to eat it -- but nothing is well developed here. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: This sequel to 2000's Meet the Parents knows that its audience expects a symphony of outrageousness. Anyone who resists is pummeled into submission by the sheer pace and volume of the comic antics. Read more

David Chute, L.A. Weekly: Feels like a big-budget Dharma & Greg episode with toilet jokes. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: So many subplots are piled onto Meet the Fockers that it's a wonder any of the glittering talents assembled here have room to be funny. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Despite a cast enhanced with notable players -- Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand come on board as the elder Fockers -- the movie has few new jokes to tell, offering little more than slight modulations of familiar scenarios. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Meet the Fockers, a sluggish sequel to the anarchic domestic comedy Meet the Parents, is one visit too many. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Because no good joke in Hollywood goes untold again ... and again, the mixed-couple setup receives another extended workout in this modestly amusing sequel. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Very often vulgar and tasteless, and though there are some unexpected bursts of humor and even charm in the proceedings, it's light years away from Chekhov. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: A vulgar farce that isn't remotely amusing. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Meet the Fockers is as tacky as its title, as crass as a kid learning his first cuss word. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There are few things sadder than wasted potential, unless it's sitting through 115 minutes of mediocrity desperately searching for a few decent jokes. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is pleasant enough, but never quite reaches critical mass as a comedy. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Could have been much funnier than it is. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: For audiences that loved Meet the Parents, the movie is a welcome chance to revisit funny and familiar characters. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A weary retread without a fraction of the inventiveness that sparked the original. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: The family is bigger, but the laughs aren't. Read more

Amy Simmons, Time Out: This sequel's title indicates the content: smutty, silly and liable to make you smirk despite yourself. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A silly good time. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The gap between the first and second installments isn't as gaping as with, for instance, Analyze This and Analyze That, but the laughs Fockers generates are the type you feel embarrassed about almost immediately afterward. Read more

Dennis Lim, Village Voice: De Niro's brilliantly economical expression of utter revulsion somehow never stops being funny. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Don't even rent the DVD, it'll only encourage them. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: A negligible product content to stoop for the easy laughs and the easy money. Read more