‘Little Fockers’ comedy is stale

(MCT) — Focus on this, “Focker” makers: You’ve wrung every last drop of comic possibility out of this tired franchise.

The third installment in the series has the stale, slightly sour ambiance you’d expect when walking into a summer house that’s been shut up for the winter. Can we get one more laugh in “Little Fockers” out of the eternal battle between dopey son-in-law and tyrannical father? Well, sure, if you douse both of them with ketchup and make them roll around an ant farm, or put them in tights and have them dance “The Nutcracker,” or require one of them to administer an adrenaline shot in the other’s nether regions after an erectile dysfunction dose goes awry. (One of those three scenarios actually takes place in the film — I’ll let you guess which.)

The big-name cast is back: Ben Stiller as the hapless Gaylord (Greg) Focker; Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes, the gruff father-in-law (most famed for administering a lie-detector test to his potential son-in-law); Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as the moonbeam parents.

Even the malevolent Jinx the Cat (or a reasonable facsimile) is back, along with goofball Owen Wilson as the rival suitor.

And making their debuts as the precious twins are Colin Baiocchi as Henry and Daisy Tahan as Samantha, whose newly reached school age serves as one of the film’s flimsy plot threads.

Much of the appeal of “Meet the Parents,” the first film, stemmed from a big-name dramatic actor such as De Niro romping it up in a silly comedy. The second film attained much the same effect by talking Hoffman and Streisand into goofy roles as a flighty New Age couple.
But the novelty has long since worn off. (So has the naughty payoff of all those last-name jokes.) Now all that’s left is the feeling of big stars collecting their paychecks. What can “Little Fockers” deliver that’s new? Not much more than Jessica Alba playing a randy drug company representative trying to get her claws into stalwart family man Stiller. Alba brings all the dynamism of a paper towel to the screen as she gives line readings so blank it’s like listening to your iPhone talk to you.