I must confess to being be something of an anomaly in the human race, in that: 

1) I’ve never seen Meet the Parents, and

2) I don’t think much of Robert De Niro.

I realise he’s a strong (if slightly one-dimensional) actor and love many of his films like Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, but he also strikes me as an arrogant jerk off and I’d never watch a movie just because he’s in it.  So am I the best person to review Little Fockers?  I don’t know, but here goes. 

This third instalment in the Fockers franchise opens with Jack Burns (De Niro) learning his son-in-law Bob is cheating on his wife, Jack’s second daughter Debbie.  This stress and health problems this engenders causes Jack to promote his other bumbling son-in-law Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) to the position of ‘Godfocker,’ or head of the family.  When Jack subsequently suspects Greg of having an affair with a sultry pharmaceutical rep (Jessica Alba, who won a Golden Raspberry in part for her performance here) he begins to regret his decision.  Throw in some gags about prostates, erections, vomiting and clumsy slapstick, a few loosely connected ‘comedic’ scenarios and a host of uninteresting cameos (Harvey Keitel, Laura Dern) and you’ve got what is undoubtedly one of the least enjoyable and most thoroughly pointless films of all time. 

Little Fockers currently holds a 9% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and I would suggest this is erring on the side of generosity: to call it sub-moronic is to only scratch the surface of its imbecility.  Some of the kinder critical assessments include ‘Too disjointed, too patched together... the series is quickly running out of steam‘, ‘utterly formulaic’ and the pithy, if obvious, ‘Schindler’s List was funnier than this.’  Why stop there?  I’d go so far as to say footage of the Doctor’s Trial at Nuremberg was funnier than Little Fockers, and I’d rather watch footage of Nazi war crimes than another instant of this dross.  This worn ‘threequal’ is so unfunny as to constitute an act of inhumanity, and watching talented actors like Stiller, Owen Wilson and De Niro debase themselves herein is the comedic equivalent of a Mengele experiment. 

Special Features

The one redeeming feature of this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Edition combo pack is the inclusion of some highly worthwhile bonus features, many of which trump the actual film in terms of entertainment value.  There’s a Gag Reel, several Deleted Scenes, The Making of a Godfocker featurette, an Alternate Opening and Alternate Ending, and more.  The Blu-ray edition also contains the BD-exclusive featurettes ‘Bob and Ben’ and ‘Ben and Owen’.