Leading Ladies: December 23, 2004

Heading to the movies this weekend? Find out what's worth your time according to the top women film critics at the nation's best publications. Every Friday morning we'll give you the female perspective on what to expect when the curtain rises.

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With such an all-star cast for the sequel to 2000's hit comedy Meet the Parents, some people probably had high expectations, but not most of the female film reviewers out there. In fact, says Salon's Stephanie Zacharek, "the biggest gag... is embedded in its title ‑- a remnant of the old 'sounds like a bad word but isn't' routine." And the New York Daily News's Jami Bernard puts it even more succinctly, saying, "The Focker and the Byrnes families have overstayed their welcome."

But the Los Angeles Times' Carina Chocano did manage to find some fun in Hoffman, whom she calls "the real Jewish mother." And Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwartzbaum says "the old-pro twosome of Streisand and Hoffman make such sexy and inviting ethnics (as a certain kind of movie likes to think of a certain kind of Jewish character) that they blithely prevail over the been-there-done-that gags."

Female consensus: The only thing more dysfunctional than the Focker and Byrnes families is the sequel's tired script