Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Meet the Parents (2000)
Director: Jay Roach
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Astutely observed, subtly played and consistently hilarious, this family farce marks a change of pace for Austin Powers director Roach, who directs his perfectly matched stars, De Niro and Stiller, with a keen eye for comically exaggerated yet instantly recognisable human behaviour. For Jewish, cat-hating male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller), a visit to his girlfriend Pam's WASP family home quickly degenerates into a nightmarish series of gauche faux pas and embarrassing humiliations. His creepy prospective father-in-law, cat-loving ex-CIA operative Jack Byrnes (De Niro), cuts him no slack, using his specialist psychological profiling skills to keep eager to please Greg on the back foot at all times. It starts with lost luggage and ends with cat-painting, with plenty of foot in mouth and a little firestarting in between. De Niro has never been better; even so, Stiller's versatile and prodigious comic talent more than allows him to hold his own. If the screenplay has a fault, it's an over-emphasis on the Oedipal conflict between the two males, which often reduces Pam (Polo) and her likeable ditzy mother (Danner) to little more than spectators. As Pam's oh so perfect old flame Kevin, Wilson fares much better.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Jay Roach
Producer: Nancy Tenenbaum, Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, Jay Roach
Cast: Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, James Rebhorn, Jon Abrahams, Owen Wilson, Nicole DeHuff full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 108 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now