MOVIE REVIEW

Meet The Parents  (2000)

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Ben Stiller, Teri Polo

Director: Jay Roach
Rating: PG-13

Studio: Universal

Review Posted: 10.11.00

Spoilers: Minor

By Dennis Landmann

It's Hard Not To Laugh

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 of course, 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 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. Meet The Parents is actually the second best comedy of the year behind Scary Movie (Me Myself & Irene, Chicken Run and Keeping The Faith to list a few, among others of course).

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.

Rating: 9/10