Review of Little Fockers (2010) by Ramses R — 03 Jul 2011

As a biased fan of (almost) every actor in the movie and the series itself, I had no choice but to see this third incarnation of the Byrnes-Focker story. To be completely honest you will laugh, and you may enjoy yourself, but even the most biased of fans will find this movie to be a bit of a stretch in every way it could possibly be. I like to think of it as The Replacement Curse. When I heard Jay Roach (Meet 1 & 2's director) was stepping out, as usually happens, a red warning light went off in my brain. This is the same thing that happened when I heard Brian Singer wasn't directing the 3rd X-Men, but as with that movie, the studio marched on in blind confidence, and so we arrive at Little Fockers.

To put what I found to be the problem in a basic form: what Meet The Fockers did with the "illegitimate love child" bit, Little Fockers does with almost every advancement in the plot. Character relationships unfold a little too quickly, a little out of the blue, and the characters have this unanimous air of not actually being real people. You end up feeling like everything that's going on could very well be a dream in Greg Focker's anxiety-filled subconscious, and come to think of it, it would've sunk in better if that would have been the case.