6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
Now that Greg Focker is "in" with his soon-to-be in-laws, Jack and Dina Byrnes, it looks like smooth sailing for him and his fiancé, Pam. But that's before Pam's parents meet Greg's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker. The hyper-relaxed Fockers and the tightly-wound Byrneses are woefully mismatched from the start, and no matter how hard Greg and Pam try, there is just no bringing their families together.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Teri Polo, Barbra StreisandComedy | 100% |
Romance | 37% |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Social network features
Mobile features
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When last we left Greg—or is that Gaylord?—Focker (Ben Stiller), he had achieved a certain détente with his soon to be father-in-law, ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro). Greg/Gaylord was poised to marry Pam (Teri Polo), as Jack and his slightly batty wife Dina (Blythe Danner) looked on semi-approvingly. Happy ending, right? Well, maybe for that film, the often hilarious cultural clash comedy Meet the Parents. But if there’s one thing box office success often guarantees, it’s that happy endings are soon rent asunder by the lure of even more box office success with a sequel, and so next came Meet the Fockers, where the Byrnes parents got to interact with the Focker parents before the actual nuptials of Greg and Pam take place. This is a setup as old as time, or at least as old as situation comedy. Mismatched sets of in-laws have been a staple of any number of television and film properties, some of them quite aptly including “in-law” in their title, as in the very funny two season NBC comedy The Mothers-in-Law and Arthur Hiller’s hysterical 1979 film The In-Laws. In fact that 1979 film may well have been at least a partial inspiration for Meet the Fockers as it, too, featured a secret CIA operative whose clandestine job skills wreaked havoc on what should have been a domestically calm interaction. This second outing is a film that at least partially substitutes some judicious stunt casting (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as Stiller’s folks) in the place of nuanced comedy writing. The good news is the characters here are still so sharply drawn, and the differences between them so outlandishly exaggerated, that there is still some comedy gold to be had, albeit a bit more fleetingly than in Meet the Parents.
Meet the Fockers has a problematic Blu-ray transfer, courtesy of a VC-1 encoded 1080p image in 1.85:1. The best thing about this image are the astoundingly vivid and gorgeously saturated colors. Hoffman's bright red shirt is a wonder to behold, and it never radiates into blooming territory. The Florida locales look very lush, with wonderful teals and turquoses, and the kaleidoscope of party umbrellas during the closing wedding scene are also quite beautiful. But, oh, what edge enhancement and other artifacts! When Jack holds up the little graphic signs for Little Jack's edification, ugly white halos surround the black lines. There's rampant edge enhancement throughout the film, and over and over we get a lot of shimmer on things like De Niro's salt and pepper hair, as well as moire and aliasing on things like Jack's blue pin striped sport coat. If you can get past that (and it's frankly not always easy to), this Blu-ray sports a nicely sharp image with good fine detail, decent grain structure, excellent depth of field, and very good contrast. But it's the colors that will probably linger in memory as being the best thing about this transfer.
As in Meet the Parents, we're given a perfectly serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that simply doesn't have a lot of opportunity to strut its stuff. There's certainly decent enough surround activity, within the confines of a dialogue driven comedy, but it's limited to things like the roar of an RV panning through the soundfield, or party noises at a nightclub. Otherwise, we have excellent fidelity during the talking scenes, with everything crystal clear and easy to hear, anchored solidly in the front channels. It's hard to get very worked up about a sound mix like this, but there's certainly nothing wrong in any way with this DTS track. It does its job absolutely professionally, with no problems to report.
Meet the Fockers has a slightly less filling array of supplements than did Meet the Parents:
The law of diminishing returns hasn't quite caught up with Meet the Fockers. The stellar cast provides a wealth of great little comedy bits which help this film to get past some patently ridiculous, and at times less than hilarious, moments. This Blu-ray transfer has some image issues, though, so you may want to rent it first to check it out. The film itself, though, is Recommended.
2000
2007
2010
Special Edition
2008
10th Anniversary Special Edition
2002
2011
2002
2009
1997
Extended Cut
2008
2003
2002
2004
2010
2018
2005
2003
2006
Theatrical Version
2005
2004