Whatever happened to comedy? The sophisticated comedy of Carole Lombard? The situational comedy of Jackie Gleason and the Honeymooners? The physical comedy of Laurel and Hardy? The 'family comedy' of Carol Burnett?

In its place, we have the likes of
"Meet The Fockers", a juvenile, 'toilet humor' waste of time that starred, believe it or not, Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro and Barbra Streisand. Times must be tough in Tinseltown if such mega-talents had the nerve to show up to film this wasted piece of celluloid.

If you want to experience the same level of toilet humor comedy, read the walls in any boy's lavatory in any middle school and you'll have met, and most likely surpassed, the level of comedic writing thrown at this disaster.

The idea that passes for a plot has Stiller and his fiancee's parents meeting for the first time. The most embarrassing thing in the film is to cringe while watching Streisand doing an imitation of Henny Youngman in drag. It's a new high in low for Babs. Robert DeNiro mugs and makes faces throughtout the film which wears thin after the first fifteen minutes. Hoffman tries too hard to be cute and adorable but winds up looking foolish.

Particularly offensive is the baby that someone took great pains to teach him to say, "a** h***", and the elderly group representing
Streisand's 'patients' (she's a sex therapist in the film) who demonstrate obscene sexual positions complete with sound effects.

The one thing that this film has going for it is its consistency. It's consistently bad, and there's something here to offend everybody. Personally, I draw the line at foul language uttering toddlers and hyper-sexed old folks. This isn't comedy, it's an eabarrassment for all involved.

Speaking of cringe-worthy moments, I'm surprised you didn't mention DeNiros' vivid attempts to breast feed...

Can I just say that I agree completely with everything said here... including that utterly disturbing man-baby-feeding-boob thing... I don't think I uttered a laugh throughout that entire movie.. I almost returned the movie and demanded my money back, but figured it was my fault for actually renting it in the first place... that one is definetly a movie I'd like to forget sooner rather than later.

Good points, guys. What surprises me , and offends me, most of all is the thought that someone in Hollywood was under the impression that we would ENJOY this crap, laugh uproriously at its foul and juvenile attempt at humor and be enthralled with the mega-stars it attracted to participate. I was initially very impressed with the calibre of stars in it until I saw it and wondered what could have posessed them to lower their standards to such a level.

I really don't understand what has happened to the movie industry. Once upon a time they produced quality scripts for quality stars, not only for movies but also for TV. Comedy that would bring forth a smile and even an audible laugh. I can't remember the last time I smiled or laughed at a modern comedy. When faced with this complaint, producers insist that they are giving the movie going public what they want. I don't know where they get their information but no one I know has anything good to say about the modern movie industry--most can't even remember the last time they were at the movies. Their survey group must be those 13 year olds writing on the boy's lavatory walls cause that's the kind of 'humor' we're faced with.

I'd like to ask Ms. Streisand, Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Hoffman---you all are considered the finest the acting world has to offer; your many awards acknowledge this. If you die tomorrow, would you want the last body of work by which you'd be remembered to be "Meet The Fockers"?

I can almost hear their agents' phones ringing now!

Maybe I am alone here, but I must admit that I enjoyed the movie! I even went out and paid money to OWN a copy! (gasp) Sure it is not the best work these fine actors have done, but I guess I like to watch a bit of "toilet humour" have a bit of a laugh at their obvious stupidity of chosing movie scripts and sit back and watch two hours of entertainment in this "not so happy" world of ours!

Well it's just actors picking a paycheck really. I'm sure it's fun for DeNiro, Hoffman, Stiller, etc to work together, and have a little fun with their characters, even if the script is lame.

That doesn't make it a good movie of course... But you have to realize who's responsible for the quality of the film - in this case as a sort of "doomed sequel" kind of thing, usually the script is the worst part, as it takes much less ingenuity to come up with a continuation of the story, and you can coast on already-known characters. (I'm not saying all sequels lack originality - Toy Story 2... Um amazing work? Better than the first?) In this case, it's the screenwriter's fault. If the film is a pretty good idea, but poorly paced, bloated in length, gets off topic a bit or meanders on subplots, that's usually the director and a lack of tighter control and focus over the film. Honestly I can't even come up with a film where the performances held it back - usually when there's bad acting it's a kind of campy production anyway and everyone knows it. Simply stated, I don't really think this kind of thing is going to "tarnish" anybody's reputation.

Again, one of the few who liked the movie in parts - I liked the First part far too much to hate the sequel

I don't whether something is wrong with me but I found the toddler actions (at the dinner table and his first words) really cute.

I know that at least one person would agree with me on this though he is long dead. Isn't that Right, Mr. Freud?

If Sigmund was involved, we'd have Ben sleeping with Barbra, and his fiancee wishing for her mother's death so that she could jump in bed with Dustin.

Hey, you just came up with the story line for "Meet The Fockers Part 2", and I've developed something that requires an ointment.

I quite liked it.

I actually enjoyed the movie, though I thought the first one was far better!

It certainly did delve into the seedier homour, far more than the first... but, like c1gey, I don't mind a bit of raunchy humour every now and then. Possibly the legacy of being brought up on English comedies.

Well, I'm sorry guys, but if you watch a movie called "Meet the Fockers", what do you expect? The juvenile little "aren't we naughty?" title is a fair warning that anyone with taste should not watch this. The presence of Ben Stiller is another dead giveaway.

As for giving the audience what they want, I watched "There's Something About Mary" in the theatre. Although for the most part, the audience loved it, there is a scene where the disabled (though not really, we later find out) guy falls down, and has a long struggle to get stable again. The audience sat in a dead embarrassed silence the whole time. I wish the movie execs could have been there, it would have been a lesson for them.