Writer: Lorraine DCosta

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Watch this if you liked: “Meet The Parents”, “Meet The Fockers”

Never ending in-law animosity seems to have been stretched a tad bit too long. The title itself is hugely misleading in this unsavoury mishmash, as very little time is spent on the twins of Greg and Pam Focker. This is definitely the least and hopefully the last of a franchise that started amusingly a decade ago but now has overstayed its welcome. The jokes in this movie feel like they came right out of a men's room wall. It should have been more aptly titled "Little Floppers" instead of "Little Fockers".

"Little Fockers" focuses on the Chicago based Greg (Stiller) and Pam Focker (Teri Polo) as they approach middle age and deal with the usual challenges related to work, finances and the raising of their twins, Samantha (Daisy Tahan) and Henry (Colin Baiocchi). Greg is under a lot of pressure to make some extra money, renovate the family's dream home and find a good school for the kids -- all of which is aggravated of course, by the presence of Pam's overbearing ex-CIA dad, Jack Byrnes (De Niro), who has flown in with his wife Dina (Blythe Danner) for their grandchildren's birthday party.

The movie feels dead, the cast looks like they are forced into this franchise. The movie is supposedly about the kids this time but went off topic and came back to the tumultuous relationship between Greg Focker (Stiller) and his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (De Niro). While the married with children angle would seem new but the story takes a turn when Jack suffers a heart attack and suspects he may not be long for this world, he anoints Greg "the Godfocker," charging him with the sacred responsibility of protecting and maintaining the Byrnes family line.

Owen Wilson's return as Kevin is insufferable as if him being in the past two movies have not been enough for the audience to suffer through on the screen, Blythe Danner looks like she knows better (and she definitely deserves better) while quick cameos by veterans Streisand and Hoffman as the older Fockers add nothing special to the movie. Harvey Keitel is in the movie for less than ten minutes, and it makes no sense why they had him in the first place. Jessica Alba as the medical rep named Andi Garcia who gets Greg to promote Sustengo, an erectile dysfunction drug looks lost throughout the movie aside from being an eye-candy. On the other hand, the viagra becomes a sub-plot when it is responsible for a lot of lewd remarks as well as for the film's big crack at an outrageous scene. Having visibly acquired the desired result but with unwanted side-effects, Jack needs a quick relief from his condition with the same thing only Greg can provide -- through a Sustengo counter injection in the relevant area but the awkward scene turns out to be totally expected by the audience even before it happens.

Anchored by adult humour and incessant sexual innuendos, this movie will most likely be a hit in retirement homes and with audiences of a certain age and interests.

Cinema Online, 21 December 2010