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I adore both Meet the Parents, AND its first sequel, Meet the Fockers. Unfortunately, the second sequel and trilogy finale, Little Fockers, is a nasty downgrade from both movies.

After being married for the past 5 years, Gaylord "Greg" Focker (played by Ben Stiller) and Pam Byrnes-Focker (Teri Polo) have twins; Samantha (Daisy Tahan) and Henry (Colin Baiocchi), and Greg seems to have finally managed to solidify his place in the Byrnes family "circle of trust". However, Greg is moonlighting with a drug company, and the flirtatious behavior towards him by perky rep Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba) arouses the suspicions of his uptight father-in-law Jack (Robert De Niro). As the two clans descend on the scene of the young twins' 5th birthday party, Greg is forced to wade through thousands of misunderstandings to show Jack that he is worthy of being the next patriarch of the Byrnes family, especially with Jack's heart problems.

Now, let me just start by saying that in this movie, the acting REALLY took a nose-dive from the two previous movies. Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner and ESPECIALLY Robert De Niro all seem to have completely lost interest in their respective roles as Greg, Pam, Dina and Jack by now. In fact, Robert De Niro has made it abundantly clear that he ONLY reprised his role as Jack for the hefty paycheck, and it definitely shows. As for Greg and Pam's twins, Daisy Tahan definitely had a lot of experience with acting at the time, but as Samantha, I'm not sensing that. Then again, it may have been a direction problem. But as Henry, Colin Baiocchi just can't act. I kinda feel bad for him. In fact, the only cast members who seem to be trying at all in this movie are Jessica Alba as Andi, Owen Wilson, who reprises his role as Kevin, and Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, who reprise their respective roles as Greg's parents, Bernie and Roz, but are WOEFULLY underused.

In addition, the writing is a massive downgrade. The wholesomeness from the two previous movies that helped balance the sadism is largely gone, and the entire movie, all around, just feels so much more mean-spirited, especially with Samantha clearly being Jack's favorite of Greg and Pam's kids over Henry, SPECIFICALLY because she acts a lot like him toward Greg. In fact, so much of Jack's redeemable traits from the previous movies are sucked out, to the point that he seems to have gone from a merely overprotective father to essentially being the VILLAIN. The humor isn't anywhere near as funny as the previous movies, with extra emphasis on gross-out humor (I'll just say I'm glad I still like lasagna despite one scene in this movie), and basically just rehashing jokes and miscommunication twists from the previous movies. There are a few good moments, like the epilogue, and Greg trying to back up a dump truck, but those don't make up for it. Added to which, Andi spends the entire movie acting super unprofessional, and even drunkenly forces herself onto Greg, even though she knows he's married and objects. And she never gets ANY repercussions for any of it. Instead, after she and Greg wake the next morning, she completely disappears from the story. But on top of that, lots of other characters, besides Bernie and Roz, were squandered as well. Little Jack Banks, Pam's nephew from the second movie, is only mentioned once or twice here, but never actually seen, aside from a picture. He would've been 6 by now, and it really would've been great to see how he turned out. What a wasted opportunity!

And then, of course, the music. This time, Stephen Trask took over scoring duties from Randy Newman, and honestly, I think it was a major downgrade. He doesn't supply any original songs or anything, and his score feels very unmemorable and just doesn't strike like Newman's scores from the first two movies did. In fact, sometimes, it doesn't even match the tone of the scene! Most notably, it sounds very bright and twinkly during a scene of Greg and Andi tagteaming on an enema. Really? The song choices aren't as memorable, either.

Everything considered, Little Fockers is definitely a sour note for the Meet the Parents trilogy to have ended on. The first two movies were really great, but this movie completely lacks almost everything that made them work in the first place. Jessica Alba, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand do their best to salvage things, and there is still a little good humor, but overall, this movie just needs to fock off. Stop at Meet the Fockers!

Meet the Fockers, the first sequel to Meet the Parents, was the first movie in the trilogy that I ever saw. And considering I've seen all three movies, I honestly think it's my favorite of the three!

Two years after the events of the original movie, Gaylord "Greg" Focker (played by Ben Stiller) has officially won over his future parents-in-law, Jack (Robert De Niro) and Dina Byrnes (Blithe Danner), so it now seems like smooth sailing with him and his fiancee, Pam (Teri Polo)... at least until upon arriving in Miami, when Pam's parents meet Greg's parents, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz Focker (Barbra Streisand). Right out of the gate, the immensely laidback and highly eccentric Fockers are woefully mismatched with the uptight Byrneses, and no matter how hard Greg and Pam try, there's just no bringing their families together, especially with the Byrneses and Fockers' very different views on how to handle a baby such as Pam's infant nephew, Little Jack Banks (Bradley and Spencer Pickren), who is along for the trip while his parents, Debbie and Bob, are away in Thailand.

The acting, once again, is stellar. Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Robert De Niro and Blithe Danner all return to their respective roles as Greg, Pam, Jack and Dina, respectively, and once again do terrific jobs. Even Owen Wilson, despite having only ONE scene this time, returns to his role as Kevin, Pam's ex-fiance, and once again, he's really great. In addition, joining the cast are Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, who are both absolutely delightful as Bernie and Roz, respectively, and really help make the movie even more enjoyable.

The writing is excellent, too, perhaps even better than the original! I particularly love how the movie opens by giving Greg a long string of lucky breaks, basically a hilarious middle finger to the original's opening scene, only to have it be all downhill from there. And a lot of the embarrassing incidents that occur in this movie are even funnier than the original movie, from Bernie and Roz having no filters on talking about Greg's past around Jack, the Byrneses' cat Jinxy flushing the Fockers' dog Moses into a toilet, and so on. The movie is also wholesome at times, especially at the ending. The movie even explains the absence of several members of the Byrnes family, like Debbie and Bob being in Thailand, and Pam's brother Denny having been sent off to military school (so he got what was coming to him).

And then, of course, the music! Randy Newman came back to score the movie, and once again, he did a great job. His score, once again, accentuates the comedy in several places, just like the original's did. He even contributed two great new songs that fit the movie's story, those being "We're Gonna Get Married" and "Crazy Bout My Baby". The movie uses several other great songs perfectly as well.

Everything considered, Meet the Fockers is a hilarious and enjoyable movie, and quite easily my favorite in the Meet the Parents trilogy. The original movie was hilarious, too, but this one is helped along by the introduction of Greg's parents. If you liked the first one, I know you'll like this one too!!!

Oh, and one more thing... "Essssss... hoooooooooo..." :)