After spending too much on bad Chinese, went to see Meet the Fockers as a house activity. Grant, who is in North Carolina for work, was constructively represented through special-someone Maia. So everyone was there.

Movie was fun as a group activity, though did not manage to be one of those very few sequels that exceed that which went before.

Pluses:

• Very funny.
• Ben Stiller.
• References to first movie not overbearing but rather helpful.
• Sex jokes very good. I mean, really, sexuality is funny and you can get good, healthy humor out of it without resorting to snickering. This can be best done by highlighting conflicting sexual mores or pointing out the goofy things we all do to express sexual interest. I can't come up with another movie that I've seen handle this better, though maybe if I tried I could think of something. Derek?
• Special cameo at the end that I won't spoil for you.

• One of the best things about Meet the Parents was that despite consisting of a series of horrifically unfortunate events it never seemed to require suspension of disbelief. I feel that this is what pulled it just a notch above Zoolander or Dodgeball: that all the insanity is something you can imagine happening to yourself. This movie somehow just missed the element of believability needed to give characters' misfortunes that extra biting edge.
• Animal humor. If I wanted "oh that crazy cat!"-type moments I would watch Air Bud or something. Please, getting a cat to flip a switch is not something I ever want to see in a movie with an R rating.
• Baby humor. Again, I could watch Look Who's Talking, Too. Fortunately Vanessa was along to complain with me about these two points.

posted by weiss @ 10:41 PM