Showing posts with label Romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romance. Show all posts
Sunday, July 31, 2011
MEET THE FOCKERS (2004)
Meet the Fockers (also known as Meet the Parents 2) is a 2004 comedy film directed by Jay Roach and the sequel to Meet the Parents. The film stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo and Owen Wilson. It was followed up by a sequel, Little Fockers, in 2010.
PLOT
Nurse Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) delivers a baby in the hospital. Thrilled with his professional success, he goes home and picks up his fiancée Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo) on his way to the airport. The couple are traveling to introduce their parents to each other for the first time. Over the opening credits, Greg & Pam are met with success after success, often making references to setbacks Greg suffered in Meet the Parents. The sequence ends with the couple in the first class cabin being served champagne by the stewardess who had ejected Greg from a plane, for verbal assault, in the previous film.
Pam & Greg's first stop is Oyster Bay, Long Island, at the home of Pam's parents, retired CIA agent Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) and his wife Dina (Blythe Danner). Jack and Dina are babysitting Little Jack, the one-year old son of Pam's sister Debbie. Jack proudly shows off his parenting techniques, which include Baby Sign Language and the Ferber method. Pam & Greg are surprised to find out that they will be driving down to Coconut Grove, Florida in Jack's new RV, instead of flying as they planned. Greg calls his parents to tell them of the change of plans, but he has to leave a voice mail when they don't answer.
On the drive down, Jack informs Greg that he will be studying the Fockers to make sure that they are a good match for the lineage of the family. When they arrive on the island where the Fockers live, Bernie Focker (Dustin Hoffman) affectionately greets everyone with hugs and kisses. Greg slips away to meet his mother Roz (Barbra Streisand) who is a sex therapist specializing in senior sexuality and circumcision post trauma. Afraid of scaring off the Byrneses with her offbeat profession, Greg convinces a begrudging Roz to pretend that she is a yoga instructor for the weekend.
Pam informs Greg that she is pregnant, and the couple agrees that they should not tell their parents during the weekend, particularly because Jack still thinks that the two of them are not having sex. Over cocktails and dinner, the forthright, affectionate demeanor of the Fockers is a something of a shock for the Byrneses. When discussing his grandson, Jack explains that he is Ferberizing the child. Bernie suggests "Fockerizing" him by smothering him with hugs and kisses.
That night, the Fockers decide to visit the Byrnes' RV, where they insist on sleeping. Bernie's dog chases Jinxie through the RV, and ends up getting trapped in the toilet bowl. Having been trained by Jack to flush, Jinxie flushes the dog into the blackwater tank. Panicked, Bernie destroys the toilet with a fire extinguisher to save his dog. The Byrnes are forced to stay in the house, and Bernie treats them to his famous 'Focker Fondue' at dinner. When Greg's old nanny, Isabel Villalobos (Alanna Ubach), comes over to help with dinner, Bernie reveals that Greg lost his virginity to her fifteen years before. After dinner, Roz tells Greg that she predicts Pam is pregnant, which he confirms is true, though he tells her to keep it a secret. Later, much to Greg's further embarrassment, the Byrnes family have to endure the sounds of the Fockers' role playing foreplay for the whole night.
The following day, Bernie takes Jack to Isabel's to fix the RV's toilet. The women go off shopping together, leaving Greg alone with Little Jack. Isabel's son Jorge (Ray Santiago) is a 15-year old mechanical prodigy and can easily fix the RV.
Jack is struck by how much Jorge resembles Greg, particularly when he lies. During their shopping trip, Roz admits to Dina that she is a sex therapist and coaches her on ways to seduce Jack. She also drops hints at Pam's pregnancy towards her which she embarrassingly shrugs off. At home with Little Jack, Greg takes his eyes off him when Roz calls to check in, which is just long enough for Little Jack to get out of his crib and into trouble. When Jack returns home and sees his grandson with his hands glued to a rum bottle, he is furious.
Reverting to his old ways, he initiates an investigation into Jorge's paternity, securing samples of Greg and Jorge's hair for a DNA test. During a dinner party that evening, Pam tells Greg that she confessed to Dina regarding her pregnancy, Roz also tells Bernie (who starts making pregnant gestures at Pam). During the party, Jack introduces Jorge to Greg, shortly after Jack confronts Greg about Jorge being his son which Greg says he's never heard any news on him being his father, and just as Jack leaves the bathroom he injects Greg with sodium pentothal (also known as 'truth serum'). Intoxicated by truth serum, Greg gives a rambling toast where he claims that he is Jorge's father and reveals that Pam is pregnant before passing out.
The next morning Greg wakes up on his parents' bed but doesn't remember a thing. Jack summons Dina and Pam to the RV so that they can leave the island, but Bernie lies in front of the RV to prevent him from driving. Dina reveals that Jack injected Greg with truth serum, because she found the vial. Angry, Bernie threatens Jack and tries to roundhouse kick him, only to miss and hit Greg (who was standing between him and Jack) in the face.
Everyone confronts Jack about his inability to cede control and argue that there can be no 'circle of trust' if he doesn't trust anyone in it. The family reveal that they all knew about Pam's pregnancy but didn't tell Jack, causing him to drive off hurt. Bernie and Greg give chase, attracting the attention of a cop who pulls them over and arrests them. On his way out of town, Jack gets the results of the DNA test, which reveal that Greg is not Jorge's father. He realizes he is being ridiculous and turns around, passing the shackled Fockers by the roadside. When he stops to intervene, he is also arrested. In their jail cell, Greg insists that the two men get over their differences. They reconcile, and Greg decides to marry Pam that weekend. The men are later released by the local judge, who is a student of Roz's sex therapy class.
The couple get married on the island by Kevin (Owen Wilson), Pam's ex-fiancée. During the reception, Jack asks Roz for some sex tips and slips off to the RV with Dina. Bernie smiles and concludes, "We've Fockerized him!".
During the credits, Jack watches hidden baby-cam footage (just like in the first movie) of the Fockers giving attention to Little Jack, something Jack didn't want previously. It shows Roz giving Little Jack some chocolate (which Jack shrugs off), and Bernie encouraging Little Jack to use his crying and screaming as his way of protesting everything Jack says (much to Jack's annoyance), and finally Greg, who drunkenly tells Little Jack that Pam is not really pregnant and only told Jack so that he would let them marry each other. Jack is suddenly serious and Greg notices the camera by saying "Ooh what's that? (GASPS) It's a camera!" and makes mocking gestures to it. Jack responds by turning the video off.
BOX OFFICE
The film was a commercial success. According to Box Office Mojo, it grossed $46,120,980 on its opening weekend in North America (3,518 theaters, averaging $13,110 per theater). At the end of the film's 149 days of release, it grossed a total of $279,261,160 in North America, and $237,381,779 in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $516,642,939. The film's budget was $80 million.
THE NEXT THREE DAYS (2010)
The Next Three Days is a 2010 thriller film directed by Paul Haggis and starring Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks.
It was released in the United States on November 19, 2010. It was filmed on location in Pittsburgh. It is a remake of the 2008 French film Pour Elle (Anything for Her) by Fred Cavayé and Guillaume Lemans.
Plot summary
Lara Brennan (Banks) is convicted of murdering her boss after an altercation at work. Following the failure of her appeal, Lara's husband John Brennan (Crowe), a professor at a community college, becomes obsessed with the idea of breaking her out of jail, while their son Luke ceases to acknowledge her during their prison visits.
John consults Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), a former convict who successfully escaped from prison seven times. Damon advises John to study the prison, saying "every prison has a key". Damon also warns him that the initial escape from the prison will be easy compared with avoiding capture after the escape. To that end, John must obtain false passports, new social security numbers, and a "truckload of cash" to have a chance of success. Damon also suggests going to an unpopular foreign destination for Americans. John learns Pittsburgh's time to lock-down the city's exits after a call is made to do so: 15 minutes for the city center and 35 minutes for all interstates, secondary roads, and stations or airports.
John contemplates several ideas that don't pan out and is defeated more than once, but latches onto a solid plan and the necessary paperwork after some painful efforts. John falsifies and plants blood work results indicating that his wife is in a state of hyperkalemia, and she is transferred to the hospital. He follows the ambulance and helps her to escape although she is doubtful and reluctant, motivated only by the idea of her son being without either parent.
With the police getting some lucky breaks, they are hot on John and Lara's trail through a series of chases. Throughout the film, John is shown assembling maps, photographs, notes, and other papers on a wall of his house. He tears them down and stuffs them into several garbage bags before leaving to rescue Lara, leaving one bag in the trash outside his home, and the rest in a dumpster some blocks away. As it turns out he did this selectively to misguide the detectives regarding their final destination. They have an uncomfortable moment at passport control, as a Canadian officer examines their passports and glances at the page of photographs showing people to stop. He allows them to pass. The shift changes, and as they walk down the hall, their photos are added to the list. An international flight is delayed, but the police were after the wrong destination.
At the end of the film, the family ends up safe in Caracas, Venezuela in a comfortable country house. Back in the United States, a detective who had attempted to catch Brennan returns to the scene of the crime although it had been some years since the crime occurred. Using his forensic skills, he manages to put together what really happened. It turns out that the killer of Lara's boss was really a hooded young woman after money, and a series of coincidences led to Lara's conviction. He remembers Lara saying a button popped off as she was leaving, and notices that it is raining just as it had been the night of the murder. He tosses a piece of paper in the current where the button would've fallen off, and finds it leads into a gutter. He searches the gutter but is unable to find the button. "You really thought you were gonna find it?" his assistant asks. But it turns out the button was there, buried under grime and dust, and the detectives miss it by seconds.
Cast
Russell Crowe as John Brennan
Elizabeth Banks as Lara Brennan
Brian Dennehy as George Brennan
Olivia Wilde as Nicole
Lennie James as Lieutenant Nabulsi
Aisha Hinds as Detective Collero
Daniel Stern as Meyer Fisk
RZA as Mouss
Jason Beghe as Detective Quinnan
Kevin Corrigan as Alex
Liam Neeson as Damon Pennington
Allan Steele as Sergeant Harris
BOX OFFICE :
The film earned $21,148,651 at the box office in the United States. Internationally it earned $41 million, for a worldwide total of $62 million
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