Little Fockers

This is the third in the trilogy following the relationship between Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his father-in-law, Jack Burns (Robert De Niro)--although the films are about a lot of other things as well, the main storyline revolves around Greg and Jack. In this film, which takes place 6 years after the second film, Greg and his wife, Pam (Teri Polo), have 5-year-old twins--one boy and one girl. Jack and Greg further their relationship as Jack, the family patriarch, appoints Greg as his successor, and then further analyzes him to see if he can live up to this title.

Now, this film may not be as good as the first two, but I still think that it was a good film (partially because I just love all of the characters and could probably watch them in any scenario presented to them). But the reason why this film may not be as good as the first two could be because there is a new director, and half of the screenwriting team did not come back for this one. The jokes in this one were of the same taste, but not AS funny as the first two. Don't get me wrong, I still laughed out loud several times during this one, its just that the jokes weren't as memorable as the first two. If this film never had the first two films to compare it to, it would have been better received by the critics. The thing that I love about these films is that they don't rerun jokes over and over again from the prior films--they all have jokes that are unique to their individual storylines. It cheapens the sequels when films rely on successful jokes from the previous film to ensure an "easy laugh," when all this does is kill the joke. But these films don't step into that territory--they are all well written. I love these films so much and could watch these characters over and over again, as they have so much depth and personality.

As a film, this one was good, but don't say I didn't tell you that the first two are better--just don't think about that if you go see it. Nonetheless, if you are a big fan of the first two films, this one is worth seeing.

Overall Grade: A


-Ethan Brehm