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Can Stiller keep this Focking franchise going?

Fockers, fockers, fockers. Meet the Fockers. Little Fockers.   There’s something about the name …  “The original success of the ‘Focker’ movie was in part because the filmmakers were able to put the ‘F-word’ in their title and get away with it,” said David Schmoeller, associate professor in film at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “The audience loved them for that. And that
/ Source: TODAY contributor

Fockers, fockers, fockers. Meet the Fockers. Little Fockers.  

There’s something about the name … 

“The original success of the ‘Focker’ movie was in part because the filmmakers were able to put the ‘F-word’ in their title and get away with it,” said David Schmoeller, associate professor in film at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. “The audience loved them for that. And that is no small matter.”

The first film in the series was titled simply, “Meet the Parents,” although the Focker name became such a major selling point that the second was dubbed, “Meet the Fockers.” But it’s clear that one individual has become synonymous with that faux expletive. That would be Ben Stiller, arguably the biggest Focker of them all.

The third installment of the “Focker” series opens Dec. 22. It’s titled “Little Fockers,” and it boasts a bevy of stars, including regulars Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Teri Polo and Owen Wilson, plus newcomers Jessica Alba, Harvey Keitel and Laura Dern.

Yet if Focker has a face, it’s Stiller. He is the star of the franchise, and if an entry in the series sails or fails, he’s the Focker of record. “Meet the Fockers” received mostly negative reviews — 38 percent on rottentomatoes.com — the most common complaint being that gags were recycled from the original.

So now, Focker Nation waits uneasily.

“To me, (Stiller is) a ‘love him or hate him’ kind of guy,” said Stacie Hougland, content editor for Movies.com, “who has a particular audience that will see his movies no matter what. People either find his brand of schtick hysterical, or they think he’s about as funny as Lyme disease.”

Obviously, Stiller hasn’t always been just a Focker. The 45-year-old son of comic duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara has been performing professionally for many years. The role that made him a star came in David O. Russell’s 1996 film, “Flirting With Disaster.” Then he achieved cult-like comic status in the Farrelly brothers’ 1998 hit, “There’s Something About Mary,” in which Stiller nailed perhaps the funniest hair-gel joke ever attempted.

And his Focker status isn’t his only experience with franchises. “Night at the Museum” grossed over $250 million in theaters worldwide, and led to a sequel, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” You can probably be reasonably certain there will be a third.

This particular Focker must have something going for him.

“Stiller is like a throwback to those wonderful ‘70s neurotic actors like George Segal, Richard Benjamin, Gene Wilder and Paul Sand,” said veteran standup comedian Wayne Federman.

Said Richard Roeper, film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times: “I think Ben Stiller has virtually unlimited comedic talent. He’s whip-smart, a good actor and he has a great sense of comic timing.”

Yet can Stiller — for that matter, can anyone — breathe life into a franchise if it is perceived to be waning? Financially, “Fockers” seems healthy: the sequel in 2004 grossed $279 million worldwide in theaters, against a budget of $80 million. The studio and filmmakers have to hope that negative reviews and sour word-of-mouth have evaporated over the past six years, and that another Christmas release for this new “Fockers” edition will attract audiences hungry for amusement.

“As far as movies designed for ‘in-flight entertainment,’ the ‘Fockers’ comedies are truly the caviar of the genre,” explained Hougland of Movies.com. “I think they’re completely run-of-the-mill franchise material, absolutely not memorable, and since the first one, are just milking the concept for the almighty dollar and attracting audiences with stunt casting.”

Franchises themselves, almost by definition, invite charges of dollar-milking no matter what the genre. It’s unusual when any achieve both commercial and critical success to counter such allegations. The most notable franchise in recent years to rake in both raves and revenue is the “Bourne” spy thriller series with Matt Damon.

Schmoeller said it is the third installment in any series that establishes a franchise, and therefore it’s rare when a trio or more of comedies hits pay dirt. His favorite such group of comedies is the “Ghostbusters” films with Bill Murray, although the third one won’t be in theaters until 2012. He sees parallels between Murray and Stiller.

“Bill Murray’s brilliance — in much of his work, not just the ‘Ghostbusters’ series — is in his mastery of the deadpan,” Schmoeller said. “He plays over-the-top situations so low-key and deadpan that the unbelievable becomes acceptable.

“Ben Stiller is an especially successful actor in comedies for similar reasons as that of Bill Murray, but with different kinds of performances. Ben Stiller is successful in comedies for playing the straight man. In the most over-the-top situation, Stiller plays it completely straight-faced, and like Murray, he makes the unbelievable completely acceptable. And the result is the comedy that ensues.”

Chances are “Little Fockers” will make enough money at the box office and on DVD to pay for that large ensemble cast and then some, although it faces some competition during its opening weekend with Jack Black's “Gulliver’s Travels” and the Coen brothers’ remake of “True Grit.”

If it performs well, Stiller’s credentials will sparkle a little brighter. If it disappoints, Hollywood’s penchant for diluting an idea for profit will probably take the bulk of the blame. “Stiller could play the emperor with no clothes and convince the audience that he was in full regalia,” Schmoeller said. “He’s that good.”

Of course, one actor — even an immensely talented one — often is not enough.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Roeper said, “the ‘Fockers’ ran out of gas about halfway through the last chapter, let alone the new one.”

Michael Ventre is a frequent contributor to TODAYshow.com.