6. Meet The Fockers - Gaylord Focker
Gaylord Focker's comedy of errors in trying impress his father-in-law Jack Byrnes have rightly gone down as some of the last decade's most cringe-worthy comedy scenes, and Ben Stiller's forlorn nurse elicited sympathy from all those who wanted to make a good first impression with their own in-laws, but just stuck their foot in it instead. So naturally, after Meet The Parents' success, there was always going to be a sequel throwing Gaylord's parents into the mix. True to form, the filmmakers didn't disappoint, casting Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand as two bohemian, free-love-embracing baby boomers. Obviously, it's this way for a reason they're set up as the antithesis to the uptight Jack, so comedy can ensue further down the line. Yet if we get away from strait-jacketing sequels and treat Gaylord like a real person (which, obviously, he isn't), we can ask why the hell he's chosen to throw so many combustible elements together again, especially so soon after his last trauma. After all, he's had a whole film of being hooked up to lie detectors, assaulting would-be family members with volleyballs, misplacing the family cat, ruining a wedding and flooding a lawn with sewage to tell him that perhaps a little more gradual planning is needed with his admittedly difficult father-in-law. He barely got out of the last one intact, and now he's going to introduce his just-as-difficult parents into the mix as well. Frankly, the man set himself up for another disaster it probably would've been far better to have a rethink, sit Teri Polo down and tell her that they're going to integrate the two families gradually, for extremely obvious reasons. Sure, she'd object at first, but I'm willing to bet that after seeing the family Focker and how different they are to the Barnes clan, she'd understand exactly why poor Gay doesn't want to be put through the mill again so soon. Yet instead, he almost throws his relationship to the wolves again.