Filmfemme

Rating: **3/4

Review: I like the original Meet the Parents a lot, which is probably why the sequel left me feeling a little torn. It has funny moments, sure, but it doesn't have the same spirit of the first film. Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner were good foils for Ben Stiller. They were intimidating and difficult to impress when he was obviously desperate to do just that. They had minor bits of quirkiness and oddity, but their restraint balanced them. In the sequel, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand show no such restraint. They are pure quirk, which to many people will make them purely hilarious. It's a matter of opinion, but I've always preferred verbal comedy to physical humor. While Meet the Parents has its fair share of the latter, I feel that the jokes are sharper and more fresh.