A man reaches a certain age when he realizes what's truly important. Do you know what that is?

Tracy Bennett, Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand lend a hand to Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner in "Meet the Fockers," the sequel to the hit movie, "Meet the Parents." Click photo for larger image. 'Meet the Fockers' RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, drug references and language. STARRING: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand. DIRECTOR: Jay Roach.

"Love," answers Ben Stiller as Gaylord "Greg" Focker. "Friendship ... just love. ... I think."

The correct answer, says Robert De Niro as his future father-in-law, is, "Legacy. If your family's circle joins in my family's circle, they'll form a chain. I can't have a chink in my chain."

The comical marital merging of families is a story as old as Shakespeare, who stole it from the Greeks, who adapted it from storytellers probably going back to the caves. Director Jay Roach adds nothing of substance but tells the tale with a marquee spilling over with Hollywood elite: De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner.

In "Meet the Fockers," a sequel to Roach's "Meet the Parents," Stiller's perpetually apologetic husband-to-be introduces his fiancee and her parents (De Niro and Danner as an ultraconservative retired CIA operative and his repressed homemaker wife) to his parents (Hoffman and Streisand as a touchy-feely househusband and his sex therapist wife).

"Meet the Fockers" is all about character continuity, celebrity grandstanding and a frequently repackaged one-liner concerning the surname. The story picks up where "Meet the Parents" left off, with eager-to-please Greg kissing up to his fiancee's stiff, stoic and overly suspicious dad.

They hop into a souped-up RV for a long drive to Florida to meet Greg's polar opposite parents. No surprises: The families make nice, they spar, the dog commits unnatural acts with the cat, the conservative clashes with the liberal and everyone turns against the fascist future father-in-law until he repents in a big, huggy finale.

Screenwriters James Herzfeld and John Hamburg, who doctored a 1992 screenplay that eventually spawned the 2000 film, return to keep the development of the characters intact. Their ideas about the Focker family are predictable and their story twists unravel, but Stiller's fans are likely to see "Meet the Fockers" as a logical star-studded extension of "Meet the Parents."

Stiller draws laughs with the rerun of a guy who just can't please his fiancee's old man. De Niro can thoroughly immerse himself into some roles, but the wooden, two-dimensional character gives him almost nothing to work with. Hoffman has more to sink his comic teeth into, and Streisand has her moments, particularly during physical comedy. Danner and the fiancee, Teri Polo, do little more than reinforce the roles of their male counterparts.

"I'm not so sure this wedding is such a good idea," says De Niro, in an adolescent one-liner that's repeated ad nauseam. "I don't like what I'm seeing from these Fockers."

Cue the rim shot.