 Meet the Fockers is not being taken to task for being unfunny -- just not as funny as it should have been, given its award-winning cast, including Robert DeNiro, Barbra Streisand, and Dustin Hoffman. Comments Manohla Dargis in the Los Angeles Times: "If Raging Bull, Funny Girl and Ratso Rizzo all crowding the same movie sounds too good to be true, it is." Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post remarks: "Meet the Fockers isn't a disgrace, a travesty, an abomination. But it's nothing that merits the spectacular talents of its cast and, given the intermittence of its humor and its reliance on bad puns and gross physical comedy, it would have worked just as well with television-scale stars." Ty Burr in the Boston Globe calls it simply "a waste." For Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, "the movie is pleasant enough, but never quite reaches critical mass as a comedy." And Claudia Puig in USA Today, writes that, all in all, the movie "may be a welcome antidote to the crop of serious, awards-caliber movies released during December. It's a silly good time, and that's something these days." |
