Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Director Jay Roach's (Trumbo) sequel to 'Meet the Parents', 'Meet the Fockers' arrives on 4K UHD disc courtesy of Universal. Featuring the return of all of the core cast members, the film stars Ben Stiller ('Zoolander'), Robert DeNiro (Taxi Driver'), Teri Poli ('The Arrival'), and Blythe Danner ('The Prince of Tides'), and adds Dustin Hoffman ('Tootsie') and Barbara Streisand ('Funny Girl') as Stiller's screen parents. The release carries over the important legacy features and sports an improved video presentation and a Dolby Atmos audio track. A foil-enhanced slipcover, a Blu-ray disc, and a Digital Code redeemable via Movies Anywhere are also included.

Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Meet the Fockers HVEC-encoded 2160p presentation with Dolby Vision looks good in motion, though there seem to be some limitations in place based on how the film was shot. The Blu-ray edition from 2010 had a variety of issues including edge enhancement, aliasing, and so on, but here things are generally but not dramatically improved. Still, there some instances of edge enhancement on display scattered throughout. There are also some moments with isolated principal cast members where the sharpness of the character in the foreground results in some noticeable process shots as their dialogue is captured which can be a bit jarring, see screenshots #2 and #19 for two such instances. Streisand and Stiller seem to most frequently be the subjects of these distracting moments, but other cast members participate in them as well. More positively, colors are better saturated here with Bernie's shirt being quite vivid, and the flowers around the Focker home popping nicely, as does the blue water in the RV's toilet, as well as the party decorations at the film's end. Fine film grain is intact and resolves naturally, providing the film with a pleasantly filmic look. Skin tones are typically healthy, though there are instances such as the scene in the dress shop where the the complexions of the three female cast members appear washed out, but only briefly. Fine detail levels are improved especially in close-up and mid-range shots. Viewers are able to appreciate the fine lines and wrinkles on the faces of the more mature cast members' faces, and every curl on Streisand's voluminous mane is usually discernable. Woods are warm with grain clearly visible in the RV and around the Focker house. While better, though, the image lacks the pin-point precision viewers would expect with the best 4K transfers. Blacks are pleasingly deep and the image usually possesses convincing depth, with the aforementioned process shots being notable exceptions. Overall, the image on display here is a legitimate improvement from the Blu-ray, but there still seems to be some potential room for more gains. Looking back at the 2010 Blu-ray, in retrospect I believe its score is a bit inflated, and I would have rated the 1080p presentation a 3.25/5.0. The 4K presentation is an imperfect step up, but a step up nonetheless, and my score is a 3.75 out of 5.0. It's a perfectly watchable if underwhelming presentation.

Screenshots are sourced from the 4K UHD disc and downscaled to 1080 and are in SDR.

Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Meet the Fockers has been provided with an updated Dolby Atmos track that is quite competent. Being a dialogue-heavy domestic comedy however, the track rarely has a chance to impress or dazzle. Moments of immersion are present but the track is not consistently that complex, with some of the most sonically interesting moments occurring at the restaurant late in the film, as voices, music, and drums surround the viewer, and also later when the score is pushed to the forefront after Jack's revelation. However, for the bulk of the film, dialogue is the main concern, and it is typically front and center-focused and is free from defect. Directionality is accurate. Music is rendered with precision and is supported with adequate but not impressive bass. The track does what it needs to do in its workmanlike way, though this is far from demo disc material.

Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All of the legacy bonus features have been carried forward here, but for obvious reasons, the "Matt Lauer Meets the Fockers" segment has been deleted from this release. To read about the legacy on-disc content, please follow this link.

Meet the Fockers 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As with the tone established in Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers is somehow an even more cringy comedy thanks to material that is much more overtly sexual in nature that usually brought to the fore by Hoffman and Streisand's characters. The hedonistic pair are completely spiritually at odds with the uptight Jack (DeNiro) and Dina (Danner) setting up joke after joke before certain awakenings occur. Once again, Ben Stiller's Gaylord Focker is still trying to impress and fit in with his fiancée's family with his situation worsening the further into the film we progress. But no matter how dire things may seem, an amicable resolution is all but assured, and a third installment to the franchise follows. Featuring an improved 4K video presentation and an updated Dolby Atmos track, Meet the Fockers 4K comes recommended to fans of the franchise.