Little Fockers

Little Fockers (known as Meet the Parents: Little Fockers in the United Kingdom and Southeast Asia) is a 2010 American comedy film and the third and final movie in the Meet the Parents film series, serving as a sequel to Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004). It stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand.

Little Fockers
Theatrical release Poster
Directed byPaul Weitz
Produced byJane Rosenthal
Robert De Niro
Jay Roach
John Hamburg
Written byJohn Hamburg
Larry Stuckey
Based onCharacters
by Greg Glienna
Mary Ruth Clarke
StarringRobert De Niro
Ben Stiller
Owen Wilson
Blythe Danner
Teri Polo
Jessica Alba
Laura Dern
Harvey Keitel
Dustin Hoffman
Barbra Streisand
Music byStephen Trask
CinematographyRemi Adefarasin
Edited byGreg Hayden
Leslie Jones
Myron I. Kerstein
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures (North America)
Paramount Pictures (International)
Release date
  • December 22, 2010 (2010-12-22)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$100 million
Box office$310.7 million[1]

After the commercial success of the first two films in the franchise, both De Niro and Stiller received a remuneration of $20 million for their roles in Little Fockers.

The first film in the series not to be directed by Jay Roach; it is instead directed by Paul Weitz with Roach as one of the producers. It is also the first film to not be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures in non-US countries, with Paramount Pictures taking over. Likewise, Stephen Trask, a relative newcomer, takes over composing duties from veteran Randy Newman. In addition to the original cast, Little Fockers features Jessica Alba, Laura Dern, Kevin Hart, and Harvey Keitel. Despite universally negative reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing over $310 million worldwide.

Plot

Five years after the events of the previous film, Gaylord "Greg" Focker is preparing to celebrate his twins Samantha and Henry's fifth birthday party. Things seem to go awry when Greg's father-in-law Jack Byrnes visits. Recently, Jack has been diagnosed with a heart condition and become embittered by his daughter Debbie's divorce from her husband Bob (their marriage was the social event in the first film and how Jack and Greg met), for cheating on her with a nurse. Jack's original plan was to declare Bob his successor as head of the Byrnes family, but he decides to pass the role to Greg, naming him "The Godfocker". Despite Greg reluctantly accepting the role, Jack resumes his spying on him and begins to suspect him of infidelity when he sees him with drug representative Andi Garcia, who openly flirts with him, and the presence of Sustengo erection pills in Greg's house prompts Jack to think Greg is no longer sexually attracted to his wife Pam. Furthermore, Jack starts to doubt Greg's ability to provide for his family when he appears reluctant to send his children to a private school.

During a medical conference promoting Sustengo, Greg meets Bob at a bar. Bob tells Greg of Jack's original intention to name him as successor, "The Bobfather", and his relief and happiness at leaving Jack's family makes Greg slightly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Jack speaks to Pam about the possibility of divorcing Greg and renewing her relationship with her ex-fiancé, Kevin Rawley. Eventually, following a row at a clinic, Greg escapes to his and Pam's unfinished new house, where Andi turns up. She tries to cheer him up with Chinese food and wine, but she drinks so much wine (also taking many erection pills) that she gets excessively drunk and makes an eccentric, extremely aggressive sexual pass on Greg. Jack, under the guise of looking for Greg so he can apologize to him and bring him home, pulls up to the house and sees through the window what looks like Greg and Andi having sex, although Greg is actually trying to rebuff Andi's advances. Disgusted, Jack leaves, and tells Dina and Pam that he couldn't find Greg.

Greg's parents Bernie and Roz rejoin the family at the twins' birthday party the next day. Enraged at Greg's apparent infidelity, Jack engages him in a physical fight, despite Greg claiming that Andi was drunk and he was rebuffing her. The fight ends with Jack having a heart attack and collapsing, and Greg quickly taking charge of the situation and looking after Jack. As paramedics take him away, Jack quietly admits that he believes Greg after feeling his carotid artery, which remained stable while Greg was claiming his innocence. Impressed with Greg for his integrity and quick thinking, Jack approves Greg to be "The Gregfocker."

Four months later, on Christmas Day, Greg and Pam's parents come to spend Christmas with them in their new house. Greg's parents (who are Jewish) give Jack a kippah as his present, informing Jack that while they were nursing him back to health they traced his family roots and discovered that he is part Jewish (which does not impress Jack). Bernie informs Greg and Pam that he and Roz have sold their Miami home and are moving to Chicago, only two houses down from their house. Jack and Dina decide they will move too, because they also want to be close to their grandchildren. Greg and Pam try to wean their respective parents off the idea.

Cast

Production

Production for Little Fockers began in July 2009.[2][3]

Writer John Hamburg stated the film would deal with "themes of death and divorce and all these real things that, as we get older, we start to think about, but in a really comical way."[4]

Outside the United States, this is the first film in the series to be released by Paramount Pictures, which acquired the DreamWorks back catalog in 2006 (and owned the studio itself until 2008), including co-ownership in the Meet the Parents franchise. DreamWorks remains as a copyright co-holder with Universal Pictures (as DW Studios).[5]

On August 24, 2010, it was announced that Dustin Hoffman would be reprising his role as Greg's father, Bernie Focker.[6] When the movie was in pre-production, the studios couldn't reach an agreement with Hoffman, but agreed on terms to bring him back for the film, though his role was significantly smaller than in the previous film due to the agreement coming after the initial filming. As such, they had to shoot the scenes and edit them to fit his character into the movie.

Release

In January 2010, the release date for the film was pushed back from July 30, 2010, to December 22, 2010, because Universal hoped to benefit from the long Christmas weekend.[7]

The first trailer was released on June 24, 2010. It was then shown in front of showings of Grown Ups and Dinner for Schmucks. A second trailer was released online November 10, 2010 attached with Morning Glory, Unstoppable and Skyline. The film was released in the UK and US on December 22, 2010.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 9% based on 148 reviews and an average rating of 3.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "As star-studded as it is heartbreakingly lazy, Little Fockers takes the top-grossing trilogy to embarrassing new lows."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 27 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[10]

On each website, it is Streisand's lowest-rated film. Empire gave two stars out of five, summing up, "there are inevitably moments when Hoffman or Wilson get a laugh, but on the whole, it’s the same again, but weaker and with fewer good jokes."[11]

Stars from the film have acknowledged critical dislike of the film. During his Lifetime Achievement Award speech at the Golden Globes, Robert De Niro poked fun at the critical drubbing the film received, stating, "I was very, very moved and gratified when you made the announcement [of this award] two months ago, well before you had a chance to review Little Fockers".

Box office performance

Little Fockers failed to match the opening-weekend gross of its predecessor, Meet the Fockers. It opened first on its opening weekend on approximately 5,000 screens at 3,536 locations across US and Canada, bringing its five-day opening to $48.3 million. By comparison, Meet the Fockers made $46.1 million on the same weekend in 2004 for a five-day total of $70.5 million. As of April 9, 2011, Little Fockers grossed $148.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $161 million from other countries around the world, for a worldwide total of $309.4 million.[12]

Accolades
YearAwardCategoryWorkResult
2010 Razzie Awards Worst Supporting Actress Jessica Alba Won
Barbra Streisand Nominated
Worst Screenplay John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey Nominated

Home media

Little Fockers was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 5, 2011.

References
  1. "Little Fockers (2010)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  2. Thomson, Katherine (March 25, 2009). "'Little Fockers' A Go: Report". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on August 2, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  3. Buckman, Erik (April 7, 2009). "Those 'Little Fockers' find their director". Reel Loop. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  4. Utichi, Joe; Tilly, Chris (June 10, 2009). "Little Fockers Exclusive". IGN. Archived from the original on August 2, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  5. Meet the Parents: Little Fockers UK site, with "DW Studios" mentioned in copyright line
  6. Finke, Nikki (August 24, 2010). "'Little Fockers' Brings Back Dustin Hoffman". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
  7. Stewart, Andrew (January 28, 2010). "Waiting for 'Little Fockers'". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
  8. "Little Fockers (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes.
  9. "Little Fockers Reviews". Metacritic.
  10. "Cinemascore". cinemascore.com.
  11. Newman, Kim. "Meet The Parents: Little Fockers (12A)". Empire. Bauer Consumer Media. Retrieved 2010-12-31.
  12. "Little Fockers". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  1. Uncredited, produced under DW Studios,LLC.
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