Greg
(Ben Stiller) is in love with Pam (Teri Polo). But before he can
propose to her, she gets a call from her sister. Greg finds out
that he has to get her father's permission first. Pam tags Greg
along with her to visit her parents for the weekend. Her
overprotective dad Jack, an ex-CIA agent (Robert DeNiro), gives
Greg a really hard time. It tempts Greg to try real hard to make
himself likeable (not that he isn't already). Everything that
could go wrong for Greg does in many hilarious ways. However,
most of them were predictable.
For example, Greg tries to open a champagne bottle. The cork
hits Jack's vase (in it are his mother's ashes), and naturally
it breaks. Now this is the part that really cracked everyone up:
Jack's dog Jinxes walks over to the ashes and takes a pee on it.
A lot of that kind of humor is present in Meet The Parents.
But
be warned, that's not all Greg breaks. Later in the movie, he
breaks the toilet, Debbie's nose, Jack's circle of trust,
Debbie's altar, and a lot more. And whenever Greg screws up,
they call him by the last name, which is Focker. However, most
of the time it sounds like "fucker." It's used more
than 10 times. Aside from that, there is no nudity or hardcore
language, just really laugh-out-loud jokes.
And
things for Greg begin to get worse and worse. Throughout Greg's
stay Jack gets a really bad impression of him, mainly because of
the things that happen, or rather the things that Greg is forced
into. And the writers have carefully crafted those things, more
appropriately called scenes. They really came up with lots of
funny stuff here, although they felt mostly slapstick and (some)
predictable. This movie is some sort of remake of a classic
French movie, although I'm not entirely sure.
Nevertheless, Jay Roach's direction was great. He pulled off a
lot of jokes without making them feel "forced," but
kudos also goes out to the actors for making it possible. As far
as acting goes I'd have to say it was pretty solid. Ben Stiller
and Robert DeNiro were great. The supporting cast was good as
well, especially Owen Wilson in the short but brief portrayal of
the rich, charming, and loving Kevin Rawley, Pam's ex-boyfriend.
The movie runs 110 minutes, which seems like a really long time
when watching it. The majority of scenes don't necessarily drag.
Thus, a lot of the comedy in the scenes works well, most
notably, the first talk between Greg and Jack in the car.
As a side note, when watching this movie twice it might become a
whole different movie because the jokes might not work as well
as they did the first time. Anyway, it's a great comedy worthy
of seeing if you like to be thoroughly entertained.
THE VIDEO
Universal presents Meet the Parents in 2.35:1
anamorphic widescreen.
THE AUDIO
Universal presents Meet the Parents in English 5.1 Dolby
Digital Surround. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.
THE EXTRAS
The main selling point
of this Bonus Edition DVD are the new outtakes, plus two new
featurettes, but nothing about the making of the film.
The special features
menu begins with All-New Outtakes
(6:10) and then offers even More Outtakes
(11:43). Both reels show the actors flubbing their lines or cracking
up, it's fun to watch for a little bit but eighteen minutes of
outtakes is overkill.
Deleted Scenes
(3:21) with optional commentary by director Jay Roach and editor Jon
Poll.
De Niro Unplugged
(1:33) is a shameless and pointless extra that features a scene at a
wedding party where De Niro sings "Love is in the Air" with the band
for over a minute.
Silly Cat Tricks
(5:32) appears to have been taped during the making of the sequel as
it features select footage as well as an interview with the film's
animal trailer and clips of the cats in action. It's a small and
moderately interesting extra.
Truth About Lying
(6:41) basically tells you that the lie detector can't be beat,
because it has a 98% success rate according to the licensed polygraph
operator who is interviewed for this piece (he appeared on NBC's Meet
My Folks, a knockoff reality show based on the film). This extra looks
at two scenes from the film and deconstructs them briefly, and also
states the film took some liberties in creating the lie detector
scenes.
Jay Roach: Profile
(1:16) is a weird and completely pointless video montage of the
director on the set composed to some hip remix song. Really, there is
no point to this extra at all, except to make the extras list longer.
The audio commentary
by Jay Roach and editor Jon Poll is copied here from the initial
DVD.
There are also
twenty-six seconds worth of DVD credits. That's it for the
Bonus Edition DVD extras.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Don't bother buying this DVD edition unless you care for more
outtakes, although perhaps you wanted to get the free movie ticket
inside it to see Meet the Fockers in theatres (it expired
yesterday as of this writing). The only recommendation I can give is
"rent it."
