Meet the Fockers (Cert 12A, 115 mins) Stars: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo Directed by Jay Roach
WHEN one of a film's leading characters is named Gaylord Focker you don't expect too much subtlety. And so it proves in Meet the Fockers, a sequel to the highly successful Meet the Parents.
In that film, Gaylord (played by Ben Stiller) romanced Pam (Teri Polo) and then got to meet her parents.
They turned out to be ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes, played by Robert De Niro, who used all his hi-tech devices to get the low-down on the young man wanting to marry his daughter, and his prim wife (Blythe Danner).
The comedy centred on Stiller's increasing efforts to impress the girl's parents and the increasingly bizarre scrapes in which he landed.
For the sequel, with the couple now engaged, De Niro and Danner are taken to meet Stiller's folks, the aforementioned Fockers.
He is a stay-at-home hippy and she a sex therapist for the elderly. As played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, they are very much larger than life.
But big characters and outrageous situations are what this film is all about and it works, thanks largely to the starry cast and their knockabout performances.
Stiller has already proved his worth in farce and once more he scores as the hapless Gaylord who - to add to his troubles - works as a male nurse.
For once, however, he is outshone by the older cast members who prove they can tackle this wacky sort of comedy with the skills of performers who have been around the block a bit.
