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Paramount Pictures dropped an announcement trailer<\/a> for their upcoming film, Focker In-Law, last week, and it immediately caught my attention. As you can probably tell from the title alone, the film is the fourth installment in the Meet The Parents film series, which originally kicked off in 2000. While I loved the original film and enjoyed parts of the 2004 sequel, I can\u2019t help but feel frustrated that we\u2019re getting the exact same movie for the fourth time. From the trailer, it looks like Focker In-Law promises to add some comedic beats from Ariana Grande<\/a>, but little else.<\/p>\n A Strong Start And Slow Decline<\/p>\n In case you\u2019re not hip to the franchise, the original Meet the Parents tells a very straightforward comedic story of an obnoxious, anxious man named Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller<\/a>), as he encounters his girlfriend\u2019s family for the very first time. Focker wants to take this opportunity to get the family\u2019s blessing to propose, but he\u2019s mired by a series of misunderstandings and social faux pas at every turn. To make matters worse, Focker must contend with his girlfriend\u2019s domineering ex-CIA father, Jack (Robert De Niro<\/a>).<\/p>\n The second film, Meet The Fockers, introduces some fresh talent, flips the script on Jack a little bit by taking him out of his comfort zone, and ratchets up the tension as the happy couple navigate their upcoming wedding and a premarital pregnancy. It\u2019s sort of unnecessary, but it\u2019s a harmless way to squeeze more laughs out of a pretty simple premise. Then, in 2010, we got Little Fockers, which produced absolutely no memorable moments whatsoever. Seriously, Ben Stiller even took to X<\/a> this week to say \u201cI stand by the first two\u201d installments in the franchise, ignoring the third film entirely. <\/p>\n The Same Old Jokes For A New Generation<\/p>\n Now, it looks like we\u2019re due for the same material a fourth time with Focker In-Law. Greg Focker is still an awkward, bumbling mess, while the aging Jack flexes his people skills and dunks on his son-in-law for having a stupid last name. Meanwhile, a new generation of Focker men have emerged, with Greg\u2019s son Henry (Skyler Gisondo) planning to propose to his girlfriend, Olivia Jones (Ariana Grande). From the trailer, it looks like Grande plays an FBI hostage negotiator, who wishes to pry Focker Jr. away from his emotionally topsy-turvy family in favor of a life of relative normalcy.<\/p>\n Will I watch this movie as soon as it comes out? Almost certainly. But will I have any memory of seeing it within hours of leaving the theater? I\u2019ve got my doubts. The truth is, Focker In-Law could have been an opportunity to completely reshape the characters in fun and exciting ways. We could have had Greg really come into his own with age, assuming a more confident and bullish attitude. We could have even seen him and Jack get on the same page for once, and work together to test Ariana Grande\u2019s worthiness to enter the coveted \u201ccircle of trust.\u201d <\/p>\n Instead, it seems like we\u2019re due for another 90 minutes of Robert De Niro rolling his eyes at Ben Stiller<\/a>, and conflicts driven by characters who refuse to sit down and explain themselves in plain English. The trailer reveals that even minor side characters from the other film are returning to do their same schtick. I\u2019m not mad about Focker In-Law basically recycling the Meet The Parents script for the fourth time, but I am a bit disappointed, since I know for a fact that Stiller, De Niro, and the others are capable of putting out something much stronger.<\/p>\n In fairness, this is all a reaction to a single trailer. There\u2019s an extremely minute chance that Focker In-Law subverts all my expectations, and delivers a new comedy classic that can hold its own. There\u2019s a similarly likely chance that the earth is obliterated by a meteor<\/a> before the film hits theaters, but I won\u2019t be holding my breath either way. If this film is what Ben Stiller needs to finance a third season of Severance<\/a>, then I\u2019m content to buy 50 tickets and give Focker In-Law the best damn opening weekend I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TeeJay Small | Published 2 seconds ago Paramount Pictures dropped an announcement trailer for their upcoming film,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24871,64,63,79539,35517,134,168785,296537,297139,296538,6139,300970,195327,344,8570,300971,30815,47081,300972,13293],"class_list":{"0":"post-620642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ariana-grande","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-ben-stiller","12":"tag-comedies","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-focker-in-law","15":"tag-little-fockers","16":"tag-meet-the-fockers","17":"tag-meet-the-parents","18":"tag-movie-news","19":"tag-movie-sequels","20":"tag-movie-trailers","21":"tag-movies","22":"tag-paramount-pictures","23":"tag-raunchy-comedies","24":"tag-robert-de-niro","25":"tag-severance","26":"tag-trailer-reviews","27":"tag-trailers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Focker-In-Law-2026-Trailer-14-900x506.png\")
Ben Stiller chewing familiar scenery for the fourth time<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Focker-In-Law-2026-Trailer-4-900x506.png\")
Another lie detector test as if it\u2019s a new joke<\/p>\n