I Dream of Greenberg

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If Todd McCarthy is ripping Little Fockers (Universal, 12.22) a new one ("focking dismal...nothing but a paycheck project"), so can I. This is a franchise-killer for the simple reason that it's just not funny. To watch it is to slowly succumb to a kind of corporate poison that spreads through your veins like embalming fluid, causing your skin and your soul to turn gray. Never again will I watch a Focker film...ever. It's not family fun. It's not some kind of half-okay Christmas hoot. It's narcotized horseshit.

Robert De Niro getting buried under a truckful of sand isn't funny. DeNiro with a raging hard-on isn't funny. Ben Stiller stabbing his father-in-law's erect member like he's Norman Bates killing Marion Crane isn't funny. Intra-family insinuations and putdowns and one-upsmanship about a lack of money or generosity or potency are not funny. Stiller slicing his hand with a carving knife and splattering at least a half-pint of blood all over his wife (Teri Polo) and parents-in-law (De Niro, Blythe Danner) is not funny. A film that won't stop smothering its audience with images of affluent comfort and abundance is about as funny as George Orwell's Big Brother. And on and on. You get the idea.

"This is definitely the least and hopefully the last of a franchise that started amusingly enough a decade ago but has now officially overstayed its welcome," McCarthy writes. "Still, this won't stop quite a few folks from parting with some bucks in search of some holiday season yucks, the majority of them from jokes that could have originated on men's room walls."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 20, 2010 at 2:06 AM

comment #1

Chicago48 says ...

Well at least Tom Jones sings the movie theme song.

Posted by Chicago48 at December 20, 2010 4:36 AM

comment #2

Manitoba says ...

All of a sudden, Nancy Meyers (It's Complicated, the Holiday) from Decembers past, is starting to look pretty good. And whatever happened to poor James L. Brooks? Not even Leonard Maltin could find a kind word for " How Do You Know."

Posted by Manitoba at December 20, 2010 5:40 AM

comment #3

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

Frankly, "started amusingly enough a decade ago" is far too generous an appraisal of this hateful franchise. Whatever good work they've done, Stiller and Vince Vaughan have been in far too many of these toxically unfunny paycheck "comedies."

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at December 20, 2010 5:44 AM

comment #4

Krillian says ...

I kinda liked the first one. The second one was bad, except for Dustin Hoffman. Now... what's worse? Fockers or Gulliver's Travels?

Posted by Krillian at December 20, 2010 6:14 AM

comment #5

moviefan says ...

I agree and I feel the same way about the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The first one was amusing, the second deadly so didn't see the third but I can only imagine it was even more soul-deadening than the second.

I really hate what's happening with movies nowadays. There seems to be only two choices; tiny budgeted and skimpily released indie films that probably won't even make it to my multiplex, or huge, and sometimes, crashing bores. And if a decent middle ground movie is made for the older crowd, many times it just gets savaged by the critics.

Posted by moviefan at December 20, 2010 6:53 AM

comment #6

FluffyElmo says ...

The TV ads I've seen consist of clips from the first two movies followed by a single (unfunny) clip from the new movie. When marketing can't find enough jokes to string together into a 30sec ad you can pretty much assume you're dealing with one painfully bad movie.

Posted by FluffyElmo at December 20, 2010 7:04 AM

comment #7

Gabe@ThePlaylist says ...

Oh, if only "terribly unfunny" equated to "franchise killer." What a wonderful world that would be.

In fairness, why is it close-to-impossible to make funny comedy sequels? Do people just need to replicate the same dumb jokes all over again? Are the premises just exposed as being unfunny and therefore quite depressing? Is no one's heart in it any longer?

Posted by Gabe@ThePlaylist at December 20, 2010 7:23 AM

comment #8

Guy who likes Glosette Raisins says ...

Jay Roach, who is a good director (first Austin Powers, first Parents, Recount) passed on this to direct "Dinner for Schmucks"?

Seems like a lateral move, in hindsight.

Posted by Guy who likes Glosette Raisins at December 20, 2010 7:28 AM

comment #9

Ray DeRousse says ...

I was shocked at how unfunny the trailers were for this movie. Hypodermic needles to the dick? Every audience with whom I saw this sat there in stony silence.

Posted by Ray DeRousse at December 20, 2010 7:35 AM

comment #10

Mike says ...

Though De Niro was once (in my opinion) the greatest actor in the world, I now lump him in with the Dan Aykroyds and Eddie Murphys. When he has a new movie coming out you know exactly how he's going to play it and you know that it ain't gonna be good. He has certainly and forever ruined his legacy.

Posted by Mike at December 20, 2010 11:11 AM

comment #11

LexG says ...

Looks funny as hell.

Definitely gonna see it. I don't know, this franchise just cracks me up for some reason. I can GUARANTEE I wouldn't give it anything less than THREE STARS, sight unseen.

Also it has ALBA in it. You guys REALLY aren't gonna see a movie with JESSICA ALBA?

RULE: If there is an actress you think is hot, you have to see EVERYTHING she ever does, ever.

Posted by LexG at December 20, 2010 2:01 PM

comment #12

Edward says ...

I have no interest to see Fockers, but if it allows Ben Stiller to make more films like Greenburg, Tropic Thunder or Zoolander, I'm all for it.

Posted by Edward at December 20, 2010 2:32 PM

comment #13

ROTC says ...

DeNiro must be getting one hell of a back-end deal on this movie. I have never seen him out promoting any of his films anywhere near as much as this one.

Posted by ROTC at December 20, 2010 2:42 PM

comment #14