Meet the Fockers
Encyclopedia
Meet the Fockers is a 2004 American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Jay Roach
Jay Roach
Matthew Jay Roach is an American film director and producer, best known for directing the Austin Powers films and Meet the Parents.-Life and career:...

 and the sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

 to Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents is a 2000 American comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. Starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents...

. The film stars Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

, Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

, Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...

 and Teri Polo
Teri Polo
Theresa Elizabeth "Teri" Polo is an American actress known for her role of Pam Focker in the movie Meet the Parents and its two sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers...

. It was followed up by a sequel, Little Fockers
Little Fockers
Little Fockers is a 2010 American comedy film and sequel to Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers . It stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand...

, in 2010.

Plot

Nurse Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

) delivers a baby in the hospital. Thrilled with his professional success, he goes home and picks up his fiancée Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo
Teri Polo
Theresa Elizabeth "Teri" Polo is an American actress known for her role of Pam Focker in the movie Meet the Parents and its two sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers...

) on his way to the airport. The couple are traveling to introduce their parents to each other for the first time. Over the opening credits, Greg & Pam are met with success after success, often making references to setbacks Greg suffered in Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents is a 2000 American comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. Starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents...

. The sequence ends with the couple in the first class cabin being served champagne by the stewardess who had ejected Greg from a plane, for verbal assault, in the previous film.

Pam & Greg's first stop is Oyster Bay
Oyster Bay (town), New York
The Town of Oyster Bay is easternmost of the three towns in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County that extends from the North Shore to the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the town population was...

, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...

, at the home of Pam's parents, retired CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

) and his wife Dina (Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner
Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...

). Jack and Dina are babysitting Little Jack, the one-year old son of Pam's sister Debbie. Jack proudly shows off his parenting techniques, which include Baby Sign Language and the Ferber method
Ferber method
The Ferber Method is a technique invented by Dr. Richard Ferber to solve infant sleep problems. It involves "baby-training" children to self-soothe by allowing the child to cry for a predetermined amount of time before receiving external comfort.-"Cry it out":...

. Pam & Greg are surprised to find out that they will be driving down to Coconut Grove, Florida
Coconut Grove, Florida
Coconut Grove is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami, Florida in Miami-Dade County, United States. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to...

 in Jack's new RV, instead of flying as they planned. Greg calls his parents to tell them of the change of plans, but he has to leave a voice mail when they don't answer.

On the drive down, Jack informs Greg that he will be studying the Fockers to make sure that they are a good match for the lineage of the family. When they arrive on the island where the Fockers live, Bernie Focker (Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

) affectionately greets everyone with hugs and kisses. Greg slips away to meet his mother Roz (Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

) who is a sex therapist specializing in senior sexuality and circumcision posttrauma. Afraid of scaring off the Byrneses with her offbeat profession, Greg convinces a begrudging Roz to pretend that she is a yoga instructor for the weekend.

Pam informs Greg that she is pregnant, and the couple agrees that they should not tell their parents during the weekend, particularly because Jack still thinks that the two of them are not having sex. Over cocktails and dinner, the forthright, affectionate demeanor of the Fockers is a something of a shock for the Byrneses. When discussing his grandson, Jack explains that he is Ferberizing the child. Bernie suggests "Fockerizing" him by smothering him with hugs and kisses.

That night, the Fockers decide to visit the Byrnes' RV, where they insist on sleeping. Bernie's dog chases Jinxie through the RV, and ends up getting trapped in the toilet bowl. Having been trained by Jack to flush, Jinxie flushes the dog into the blackwater tank. Panicked, Bernie destroys the toilet with a fire extinguisher to save his dog. The Byrnes are forced to stay in the house, and Bernie treats them to his famous 'Focker Fondue' at dinner. When Greg's old nanny, Isabel Villalobos (Alanna Ubach
Alanna Ubach
Alanna Noel Ubach is an American actress and voice actress. She is known for her roles in Legally Blonde as Serena and Meet the Fockers as Isabel Villalobos...

), comes over to help with dinner, Bernie reveals that Greg lost his virginity to her fifteen years before. After dinner, Roz tells Greg that she predicts Pam is pregnant, which he confirms is true, though he tells her to keep it a secret. Later, much to Greg's further embarrassment, the Byrnes family have to endure the sounds of the Fockers' role playing foreplay for the whole night.

The following day, Bernie takes Jack to Isabel's to fix the RV's toilet. The women go off shopping together, leaving Greg alone with Little Jack. Isabel's son Jorge (Ray Santiago
Ray Santiago
Raimundo "Ray" Santiago is an American actor. He played Jorge Villalobos in the film Meet the Fockers , and had minor roles in 2005's Dirty Deeds and 2006's Accepted...

) is a 15-year old mechanical prodigy and can easily fix the RV. Jack is struck by how much Jorge resembles Greg, particularly when he lies. During their shopping trip, Roz admits to Dina that she is a sex therapist and coaches her on ways to seduce Jack. She also drops hints at Pam's pregnancy towards her which she embarrassingly shrugs off. At home with Little Jack, Greg takes his eyes off him when Roz calls to check in, which is just long enough for Little Jack to get out of his crib and into trouble. When Jack returns home and sees his grandson with his hands glued to a rum bottle watching Scarface
Scarface (1983 film)
Scarface is a 1983 American epic crime drama movie directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone, produced by Martin Bregman and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana...

, he is furious.

Reverting to his old ways, he initiates an investigation into Jorge's paternity, securing samples of Greg and Jorge's hair for a DNA test. During a dinner party that evening, Pam tells Greg that she confessed to Dina regarding her pregnancy, Roz also tells Bernie (who starts making pregnant gestures at Pam). During the party, Jack introduces Jorge to Greg, shortly after Jack confronts Greg about Jorge being his son which Greg says he's never heard any news on him being his father, and just as Jack leaves the bathroom he injects Greg with sodium pentothal (also known as 'truth serum'). Intoxicated by truth serum, Greg gives a rambling toast where he claims that he is Jorge's father and reveals that Pam is pregnant before passing out.

The next morning Greg wakes up on his parents' bed but doesn't remember a thing. Jack summons Dina and Pam to the RV so that they can leave the island, but Bernie lies in front of the RV to prevent him from driving. Dina reveals that Jack injected Greg with truth serum, because she found the vial. Angry, Bernie threatens Jack and tries to roundhouse kick him, only to miss and hit Greg (who was standing between him and Jack) in the face.

Everyone confronts Jack about his inability to cede control and argue that there can be no 'circle of trust' if he doesn't trust anyone in it. The family reveal that they all knew about Pam's pregnancy but didn't tell Jack, causing him to drive off hurt. Bernie and Greg give chase, attracting the attention of a cop who pulls them over and arrests them. On his way out of town, Jack gets the results of the DNA test, which reveal that Greg is not Jorge's father. He realizes he is being ridiculous and turns around, passing the shackled Fockers by the roadside. When he stops to intervene, he is also arrested. In their jail cell, Greg insists that the two men get over their differences. They reconcile, and Greg decides to marry Pam that weekend. The men are later released by the local judge, Judge Ira (Shelley Berman
Shelley Berman
Sheldon "Shelley" Berman is an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, lecturer, and poet.- Early life :Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Irene and Nathan Berman.- Career :...

), who is a student of Roz's sex therapy class.

The couple get married on the island by Kevin (Owen Wilson
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...

), Pam's ex-fiancée. During the reception, Jack asks Roz for some sex tips and slips off to the RV with Dina. Bernie smiles and concludes, "We've Fockerized him!".

During the credits, Jack watches hidden baby-cam footage (just like in the first movie) of the Fockers giving attention to Little Jack, something Jack didn't want previously. It shows Roz giving Little Jack some chocolate (which Jack shrugs off), and Bernie encouraging Little Jack to use his crying and screaming as his way of protesting everything Jack says (much to Jack's annoyance), and finally Greg, who drunkenly tells Little Jack that Pam is not really pregnant and only told Jack so that he would let them marry each other. Jack is suddenly serious and Greg notices the camera by saying "Ooh what's that? (GASPS) It's a camera!" and makes mocking gestures to it. Jack responds by turning the video off.

Cast

  • Jack Tiberius Byrnes (Robert De Niro
    Robert De Niro
    Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...

    ): Pam's father and Dina's husband and a retired CIA agent. The anal retentive Jack is also the inventor of a Motion Sensor Nanny-Cam, and the "Manary Gland" (a portmanteau of "man" and "mammary gland
    Mammary gland
    A mammary gland is an organ in mammals that produces milk to feed young offspring. Mammals get their name from the word "mammary". In ruminants such as cows, goats, and deer, the mammary glands are contained in their udders...

    "), an invention that lets Jack "breastfeed" his grandson. His cover-up job is a retired florist/horticulturist. Even though he has given permission for the two to marry, Jack still has a distrust of Greg and goes so far as trying to prove it by taking desperate measures such as injecting him with truth serum
    Truth Serum
    Truth Serum is an independent comic book series created, written and drawn by author Jon Adams.-Overview:Originally published as a mini comic in 2001 and given away for free, it appeared as a three-issue mini series published by Slave Labor Graphics in 2002...

    .
  • Gaylord "Greg" Myron Focker (Ben Stiller
    Ben Stiller
    Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

    ): A Jewish
    Judaism
    Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

     male nurse living in Chicago with fiancée Pam, the daughter of a retired CIA agent. He spends most of the film trying to win over his fiancee's father, and is embarrassed by his sometimes crude and obnoxious family, even if they are well-meaning. In his childhood, he often finished in mediocre fashion in competitive events which was displayed in the "Wall of Gaylord" his father built. His father calls him Gay or Gaylord, which is a recurring joke within the film. He graduated from Williams College
    Williams College
    Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

     which is shown on the Wall of Gaylord.
  • Bernard "Bernie" Focker (Dustin Hoffman
    Dustin Hoffman
    Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

    ): The father of Greg. He was an attorney for a brief period of time, but became a stay-at-home dad  after the birth of his son. Bernie lives on "Focker Isle" in Miami, with his wife Roz. He claims to be a practitioner of capoeira
    Capoeira
    Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century...

    , the Brazilian martial art of dance-fighting. His fondness for chimichanga
    Chimichanga
    Chimichanga , also known as chivichanga or chimmy chonga is a deep-fried burrito that is popular in Southwestern U.S. cuisine, Tex-Mex cuisine, and the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora...

    s is a recurring joke within the film.
  • Rosalind "Roz" Focker (Barbra Streisand
    Barbra Streisand
    Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

    ): The mother of Greg Focker, who is a sex therapist
    Sex therapy
    Sex therapy is the treatment of sexual dysfunction, such as non-consummation, premature ejaculation , erectile dysfunction, low libido, unwanted sexual fetishes, sexual addiction, painful sex, or a lack of sexual confidence, assisting people who are recovering from sexual assault, problems commonly...

     for senior citizens and often embarrasses Greg by sharing her knowledge of sex.
  • Pamela "Pam" Martha Byrnes (Teri Polo
    Teri Polo
    Theresa Elizabeth "Teri" Polo is an American actress known for her role of Pam Focker in the movie Meet the Parents and its two sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers...

    ): Greg's fiancée. She is a second grade teacher in Chicago and lives with Greg. Before starting a relationship with Greg, she was engaged briefly to Kevin, with whom she is still friends. Learning that she's pregnant and not telling Jack about it, both Pam and Greg decide to move the wedding to a closer date and then to say she got pregnant during the honeymoon. However, Roz was the first to notice her pregnant when Pam refused to drink alcohol or play football with the guys.
  • Dina Byrnes (Blythe Danner
    Blythe Danner
    Blythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...

    ): The wife of Jack Byrnes, and mother of Pam, Debbie and Denny. She balances the relationship with Jack as the soft spot, and the sympathetic voice-of-reason to her husband. In the film, it can be seen that she is envious of Roz and Bernie's sex life.
  • Little Jack (Spencer and Bradley Pickren): Jack's year-old grandson by his other daughter, Debbie. Jack is grooming him to be a genius
    Genius
    Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

     using unconventional child-rearing methods. He communicates through baby sign language
    Baby Sign
    Specialized sign language is sometimes used to communicate with infants and toddlers. While infants and toddlers have a desire to communicate their needs and wishes, they lack the ability to do so clearly because the production of speech lags behind cognitive ability in the first months and years...

    . His first word is an expletive, "asshole
    Asshole
    The word asshole, a variant of arsehole, which is still prevalent in British and Australian English, is a term used pejoratively to describe the anus.-History:...

    ", which he accidentally picked up from Greg.
  • Isabel Villalobos (Alanna Ubach
    Alanna Ubach
    Alanna Noel Ubach is an American actress and voice actress. She is known for her roles in Legally Blonde as Serena and Meet the Fockers as Isabel Villalobos...

    ): Sexy former housekeeper and babysitter of the Fockers and current owner of a catering business. She had a brief fling with Greg when he was nineteen years old, which resulted in Greg losing his virginity to her. This affair led Jack to suspect that Greg may be the father of her child.
  • Jorge Villalobos (Ray Santiago
    Ray Santiago
    Raimundo "Ray" Santiago is an American actor. He played Jorge Villalobos in the film Meet the Fockers , and had minor roles in 2005's Dirty Deeds and 2006's Accepted...

    ): The 15-year-old son of Isabel, he is a mechanical prodigy with a reputation for being able to fix anything. His most definable attribute is his uncanny resemblance to Greg, which leads Jack to believe that Greg is Jorge's father. Another recurring joke in the film is that either Greg or Jorge look like a "young, Jewish/Hispanic Marlon Brando
    Marlon Brando
    Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

    ." It turns out that his father is former minor league baseball player Rusty Bridges, also played by Stiller. His Spanish name was redirected by Jack into its English translation: "George House-of-the-Wolves."
  • Moses (Terem): The Fockers' pet dog, a Chihuahua
    Chihuahua (dog)
    The ' is the smallest breed of dog and is so named for the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. Chihuahuas come in a wide variety of sizes, head shapes, colors and coat lengths.-History:...

    /Yorkie
    Yorkshire Terrier
    The Yorkshire Terrier is a small dog breed of terrier type, developed in the 19th century in the county of Yorkshire, England to catch rats in clothing mills. The defining features of the breed are its size, to , and its silky blue and tan coat...

     mix. He has the sublime ability and urge to mate with anything that moves.
  • Mr. LJ Jinx "Jinxy": Jack's pet Himalayan cat
    Himalayan (cat)
    The Himalayan cat is a breed of long-haired cat identical in type to the Persian, with the exception of its blue eyes and its point coloration, which were derived from the crossing of the Persian with the Siamese...

    . He is able to use the toilet and has extensive aquatic training. He once flushed Moses down the toilet in the Byrnes' trailer, but they are later seen eating wedding cake together in peace at the end of the film.


Owen Wilson
Owen Wilson
Owen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...

 makes a brief cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 reprising his role as Kevin Rawley, from the previous film, but this time as an ordained, inter-faith minister.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 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. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a weighted average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

score 41 out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 41 based on 34 reviews.

Box office

The film was a commercial success. The film grossed $46,120,980 on its opening weekend in North America (3,518 theaters, averaging $13,110 per theater). 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.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK