The father in law from hell! (Meet the Parents (DVD))

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	Meet the Parents (DVD)
Date:	19/04/01 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Feel good movie

Disadvantages: A little predictable

"Meet the Parents" could easily have been just another romantic comedy if it wasn't for 2 things in my opinion. Basically it's the principal actors that make this film.

Robert De Niro plays Jack Byrnes a retired CIA interrogator. As usual he is excellent. This is another role which allows De Niro the chance to fly off the handle occasionally and to be an all round scary character. However, because we know this is a comedy he is not scary in the same way as he was in say Cape Fear. It is a humorous intimidation. Only De Niro could play this role as well as he does as a lot of the intimidation comes from knowing that it is De Niro. Put say Harrison Ford in the same role and the film wouldn't have been half as enjoyable.

Ben Stiller almost re-enacts his role in “There’s Something About Mary”. He plays the same hapless character that through a mixture of bad luck and bad judgement ends up in some hellish positions. Again Stiller is great because he almost underplays the situation as if he accepts it and almost expected it. To compare I think the likes of Jim Carey would have been a disaster in this role as he would have overplayed everything.

The other thing is the situation Stiller finds himself in is one that almost everyone has had to endure. Most people fear the worst and basically this is what happens to Stiller. I think that because people can relate to what he is going through they can laugh along with it.

The story is that Greg Focker (Stiller) is about to propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo). Just as he is about to pop the question Pam’s sister calls to say that she is getting married in two weeks. This was unexpected and her sister goes on to explain how happy their father Jack (De Niro) was that his prior approval was sought. This puts Greg off asking and he thinks that the ideal time to “Meet the Parents” and ask Jack for his approval will
be the upcoming weekend where the wedding rehearsal is going on.

As I am sure everyone guessed the weekend is a disaster for Greg. Anything and everything that could go wrong does go wrong. I was a little apprehensive as I thought that the jokes would be very predictable and although some are there are also some gems in there.

The predictable one was the play on Greg’s name. However, this was never over done. A nice touch was Pam’s married name was going to be Pam Martha Focker. Imagine that name said slowly in De Niro’s style and you will see what I mean.

To be honest a lot of the jokes were verbal and not visual. Some of the situations Greg talks himself into are hilarious. For example he tries to explain to his future father in law that he once milked a cat. I will not mention any more for fear of spoiling the film.

The film lasts just under one and three quarter hours which I would say is ideal for a comedy. There is only so much comedy you can get from the one situation and I was never bored or felt like there was more that could have been done.

In summing up this is a very enjoyable movie that would probably survive a couple of repeat viewings. It was also good that although there was a romantic element in the movie it was never dwelt upon. It was a comedy first with the romance coming some way behind.

Summary: