those funny fockers

Jimbo’s and his girlfriend like to go to the movies on Saturday, as I have mentioned in the past, and there have been a number of movies we have seen lately, because there have been quite a few we wanted to see. It has, therefore, taken us some time to getting around to seeing “Meet the Fockers.” We saw it yesterday and I highly recommend it.

I was not as impressed with the original movie, “Meet the Parents,” so I came to the theater hoping this movie was not going to be a rehash of the same old stuff, as sequels frequently are. The addition of Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand, in conjunction with bringing back Robert Di Niro and Ben Stiller helped to make this movie superior to the first one. You may recall that my criticism of the recent Adam Sandler movie “Spanglish” was that it failed to deliver the laughs I was expecting. This one delivers, over and over. It is the funniest movie I have seen in quite a while.

The conflict in the movie involves Ben Stiller and his concern that his family, the Fockers and their liberal, laid back lifestyle will not be accepted by his future in-laws, the conservative Byrnes, especially the ex-CIA agent father, Jack, played by Di Niro. Stiller tries to keep his parents from being themselves and, of course, his efforts are in vain. The comedy that emerges from the interaction of the families makes this movie extremely entertaining. If you haven’t seen it, yet, I recommend that you do, soon.

And what is the deal with Randy Newman? It seems the only time you hear him singing is in the movies. If you are a fan of his, as I am, you miss hearing him on the radio, but it seems that every third or fourth movie I see has him singing in the soundtrack. In this movie he performs a song in the opening and again in the closing of the movie.

In Jimbo’s world we can’t get too many laughs, but this movie definitely gives us our share.