Arguably the best comedy of 2004, Meet The Fockers is a hilarious, humor-filled marathon. Screenwriters Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke (who should have received Oscars for their flawless penmanship of Meet The Parents) turn in another blockbuster manuscript. But, as with its predecessor, Meet The Fockers wouldn’t be the comedy masterpiece it is without the onscreen chemistry of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.

Stiller, son of comedian Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld & King Of Queens), is a comic genius in his own right and has recently dominated the Hollywood box office with a string of smash spoof comedies such as There’s Something About Mary (1998), Meet The Parents (2000), Zoolander (2001), Along Came Polly (2004), and Dodgeball (2004). De Niro, on the other hand, moves from the less serious roles of his early career into the comedy genre with an ease fully indicative of his enormous talent. Earlier comic roles in Wag The Dog (1997), Analyze This (1999), and Meet The Parents (2000) prepared movie-goers for the veteran actor’s zinging one-liners. Throw Dustin Hoffman (who’s also surprisingly funny) into the mix, and Meet The Fockers becomes one of those rare comedies that movie aficionados will want to see over and over again…

Meet The Fockers follows the continuing hardship of Gaylord “Greg” Focker (Ben Stiller), a male nurse whose future father-in-law, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), is a never-ending source of torment. A retired CIA operative, Jack is paranoid and controlling, and Greg’s previous attempts to win over Jack’s affections have always come up short. Now, Greg’s life problems are multiplied by the imminent first meeting between his in-laws-to-be and his “birth parents”.

Traveling by RV, Greg, his fiancée Pam (Teri Polo) and the rest of Byrnes family arrive in Florida where Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz Fockers’ (Barbra Streisand) free-love, hippie lifestyle stands in stark contrast to Jack’s serious faade. Throughout the visit, Greg works overtime to avoid having Jack learn of his mother’s thriving sex therapy business, his own youthful indiscretion with the family maid, and his inability to supervise Jack Jr. for even a single afternoon. When Jack gets the idea that Greg fathered a child back in high school, he administers truth serum to Greg, sparking a series of events that is sure to make even the most ardent critic of ridiculous and juvenile movies (and this is one of them) burst forth in laughter…

Meet The Fockers is a rarity in that it’s a sequel to a fairly successful film that manages to live up to the reputation of the original. Although Meet The Parents is probably the better film, Meet The Fockers is a truly hilarious comedy in its own right. Directed by Jay Roach (director of the Austin Powers franchise), Meet The Fockers is a highly entertaining comedy, deploying all the tricks of the trade - slap-stick, bathroom humor, zinging one-liners, classic “fish-out-of-water” sequences, and situation humor. By no means is it a cinema classic worthy of artistic awards and praise from sophisticated critics. But it delivers on its promise. It promises to make you laugh, and it performs that task with relative ease…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Meet The Fockers (DVD).

One of the more popular “reality” dramas on prime time TV, ER follows the lives of several of emergency room doctors and staff personal working a bustling Chicago ER. The makes a concerted effort to reveal the true details of the inner-workings of an emergency room. From the high point of saving lives to the boring minutae of paperwork, the highs and lows of hospital ER work are examined. The initial years see several characters appearing regularly. Among them are doctors Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), Douglas Ross (George Clooney), and Susan Lewis (Sherri Stringfield); Lead Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) and resident intern John Carter (Noah Wyle)…

The ER (Season 2) DVD features a number of dramatic episodes including the season premiere “Welcome Back, Carter!” in which Carter arrives late for his new position in the ER while Mark gets comfortable in his new position among the senior staff. Meanwhile, the ER tries to patch up the victims of a rival gang war, and new medical school students arrive in the ER for their rotations… Other notable episodes from Season 2 include “Hell and High Water” in which Doug happens upon a young boy trapped in a drain pipe rapidly filling with water, and “A Shift in the Night” in which Mark is forced to carry the load of the ER by himself when Doug is out with whiplash and Susan is out on business…

Below is a list of episodes included on the ER (Season 2) DVD:

Episode 27 (Welcome Back, Carter!) Air Date: 09-21-1995
Episode 28 (Summer Run) Air Date: 09-28-1995
Episode 29 (Do One, Teach One, Kill One) Air Date: 10-05-1995
Episode 30 (What Life?) Air Date: 10-12-1995
Episode 31 (And Baby Makes Two) Air Date: 10-19-1995
Episode 32 (Days Like This) Air Date: 11-02-1995
Episode 33 (Hell and High Water) Air Date: 11-09-1995
Episode 34 (The Secret Sharer) Air Date: 11-16-1995
Episode 35 (Home) Air Date: 12-07-1995
Episode 36 (A Miracle Happens Here) Air Date: 12-14-1995
Episode 37 (Dead of Winter) Air Date: 01-04-1996
Episode 38 (True Lies) Air Date: 01-25-1996
Episode 39 (It’s Not Easy Being Greene) Air Date: 02-01-1996
Episode 40 (The Right Thing) Air Date: 02-08-1996
Episode 41 (Baby Shower) Air Date: 02-15-1996
Episode 42 (The Healers) Air Date: 02-22-1996
Episode 43 (The Match Game) Air Date: 03-28-1996
Episode 44 (A Shift in the Night) Air Date: 04-04-1996
Episode 45 (Fire in the Belly) Air Date: 04-25-1996
Episode 46 (Fevers of Unknown Origin) Air Date: 05-02-1996
Episode 47 (Take These Broken Wings) Air Date: 05-09-1996
Episode 48 (John Carter, M.D.) Air Date: 05-16-1996

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the ER (Season 2) DVD.

My Search For Reality in TV Revealed Satellite TV and Television’s Future, Now.

I never dreamed of TV becoming amazing again - I was the guy with 12 o’clock blinking green on his VCR. Yes, I said VCR. So getting the hang of today’s TV was not a piece of cake.

Recently, during an emergency replace-ectomy of my dying Zenith behemoth, I realized I was in deep trouble. Never mind DVD. Who knew of progressive scan and digital convergence. Aspect ratios and digital comb filters. Anti-glare coatings and so many lines of resolution? I knew of the tv satellite dish, but…

This was a long way from the TV I was nurtured on?

I remember seeing Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show gyrating inside a black & white-glass-globe-picture-tube about as small as the window on a front-load washer.

…Man did the warm glow of that box-at-the-end-of-a-wire get me excited.

Oh, I watched plenty alright! And you know what? I can’t remember ever complaining about getting up from the couch to change the channel… or to adjust the antenna.

Then, Wagon Train on a 19 inch “color set” was about as good as it got.

I lost track of television’s high technology after a while I suppose. I saw TVs getting bigger and I did get hip to cable and the remote control - but distracted by life and a million other things - today’s satellite TV and the whole awesome new experience almost passed me by.

It wasn’t until my first trip to a home-electronics super-store - to replace the dinosaur 25inch Zenith color console, in a polished-wood-cabinet that matched our living-room furniture long ago - that I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore… but rather, lost.

Lost in a new-world-unknown.

A world where I discovered satellite tv on flat screens square and wide, Where thin plasmas hung on the wall and flat-panel LCDs framed in silver sat upon slender, tilting pedestals.

I saw TVs that connect to your computer and one, giant-screen, rear-projector that eats digital camera memory sticks to show your photos of grandma on vacation in larger than life and surround sound.

Oh, TVs are still getting bigger, alright. But now they are amazing again and I’m excited. But with that “excitement and amazement”, comes downright confusion. How do they do that? What of “all that” is right for me?

Now, I like the idea of a tv satellite dish on my roof, but it’s a new-tech jungle out there my friend. Prepare if you too are from Kansas.

I’ll help you get a clue about what’s out there before you buy “what could become” the most incredible entertainment experience you and your living room - or Elvis, could ever dream-up. And for a lot less than you think, too.

Keep your eye on the Planet. I’ll fill you in soon about why I can’t leave my home anymore.

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