F-0267

Title:

Meet the Parents

Category:

S

Produced:

2000

Country:

USA

Released:

Film: Oct 2000 (USA)
DVD: Nov 2003 (2-DVD No. 2); Dec 2004; Oct 2005 (2-DVD No. 1)
VHS: Mar 2001
Soundtrack: Oct 2000 (CD)

Director:

Jay Roach

Writer:

Greg Glienna (1992 screenplay); Mary Ruth Clarke (1992 screenplay); Greg Glienna (story); Mary Ruth Clarke (story); Jim Herzfeld (screenplay); John Hamburg (screenplay)

Actors:

Robert De Niro (Jack Byrnes); Ben Stiller (Gaylord 'Greg' Focker); Teri Polo (Pam Byrnes); Blythe Danner (Dina Byrnes); Nicole DeHuff (Deborah Byrnes); Jon Abrahams (Denny Byrnes); Owen Wilson (Kevin Rawley); James Rebhorn (Dr. Larry Banks); Thomas McCarthy (Dr. Bob Banks); Phyllis George (Linda Banks); Kali Rocha (Atlantic American Flight Attendant); Bernie Sheredy (Norm the Interrogator); Judah Friedlander (Pharmacy Clerk); Peter Bartlett (Animal Shelter Worker); John Elsen (Chicago Airport Security)

Description:

Male nurse Greg Focker meets his girlfriend's parents before proposing, but her suspicious father is every date's worst nightmare.

A Jewish male nurse (Ben Stiller) plans to ask his live-in girl friend (Teri Polo) to marry him. However, he learns that her strict father (Robert DeNiro) expects to be asked for his daughter's hand before she can accept. Thus begins the visit from Hell as the two travel to meet Mom (Blythe Danner) and Dad, who turns out to be former CIA with a lie detector in the basement. Coincidentally, a sister (Nicole DeHuff) also has announced her wedding to a young doctor (Thomas McCarthy). Of course everything that can go wrong, does, including the disappearance of Dad's beloved Himalayan cat, Jinxie. (John Sacksteder)

Greg and Pam are in love. Greg is nervous about spending his first weekend with her parents. He tries very hard, sometimes too hard, to please her overbearing dad. Greg frequently ends up comically embarassing himself in front of the entire family all because he loves Pam so much. What won't he do to try and please Pam and her family? (Jeff Mellinger)

Male nurse Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is poised to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo) during a weekend stay at her parents' home. But here's the catch . . . he needs to ask her father first. Alas, the fur flies as Jack Byrnes, Pam's cat-crazy, ex-CIA father, played by Robert De Niro, takes an immediate dislike to her less-than-truthful beau. Greg's quest for approval gets seriously sidetracked as Murphy's Law takes over and a string of mishaps turns him into a master of disaster and total pariah in the eyes of the entire family.. all except for his shell-shocked girlfriend, who can't believe she still loves her one-man wrecking crew. (Robert Lynch)

Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a male nurse, who is ready to propose to his girlfriend Pam. However, he discovers that Pam's father, Jack (Robert DeNiro) prefers to be asked for his daughter's hand in marriage before the proposal. Greg and Pam take a visit to the Burns home, so that Greg can secretly ask Pams father for his daughters hand in marriage, before proposing. Jack was a former agent of the CIA, and through his own experience dislikes Greg very much. Greg, must now try to win back Jack's trust and liking, through a visit that just cant be any worse. Throgh all his efforts of trying to befriend Jack, Greg ends up losing Jack's rare cat, giving Pam's sister a black eye, and lightings the Burn's garden on fire - just to name a few! (Mekaeal Chaudary)

Randy Newman's opening song, "A Fool in Love," perfectly sets up the movie that follows. The lyrics begin, "Show me a man who is gentle and kind, and I'll show you a loser," before praising the man who takes what he wants. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is the fool in love in Meet the Parents. Just as he's about to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), he learns that her sister's fiancé asked their father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), for permission to marry. Now he feels the need to do the same thing. When Greg meets Jack, he is so desperate to be liked that he makes up stories and kisses ass rather than having the courage of his convictions. It doesn't take an elite member of the CIA to see right through Greg, but that's precisely what Jack is. Directed by Jay Roach (the Austin Powers movies), Meet the Parents is an incredibly well-crafted comedy that stands in nice opposition to, say, the sloppy extremes of the Farrelly brothers. Stiller is great at playing up the uncomfortable comedy of errors, balancing just the right amount of selfishness and self-deprecating humor, while De Niro's Jack is funny as the hard-ass father who just wants a few straight answers from the kid. What makes the Jack character all the funnier is Blythe Danner as his wife, the Gracie to his George Burns, who is the true heart of the movie. Oh, and Owen Wilson turns in yet another terrific comic performance as Pam's ex-fiancé. (Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com)

Jay Roach moves on from the campy delights of the Austin Powers series to direct this smoothly acted comedy of errors. Ben Stiller plays a modern man charged with a Victorian task: asking his girlfriend's father for permission to marry his daughter. With a calamitous surname ("pronounced just like it's spelled, F-O-C-K-E-R") and a faintly hilarious profession (male nurse), Stiller seems like a sitting duck for the secretive, overprotective father, played by Robert De Niro. Stiller grovels, De Niro growls, and the girls (Blythe Danner and Teri Polo) watch from the sidelines. This is dumbed-up comedy: there are just enough unexpected moments to redeem all the easy pleasures of the slapstick. (Michael Agger, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

Thai, English, Spanish, Hebrew, French

TT:

108 min / 224 minutes (2-DVD No. 1) / 235 min (2-DVD No. 2)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Chorale Jesu Bleibet meine Freude (Mvt. 10) from Cantata BWV 147, arranged for solo lute

Format:

Film: Color (DeLuxe), DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
DVD: See below.
VHS: See below.
Soundtrack: CD

Company:

Film: Universal Pictures; Tribeca Productions; Nancy Tenenbaum Films; DreamWorks SKG
DVD: Universal Studios
VHS: Universal Studios
Soundtrack: Dreamworks [CD]

Comments:

2-DVD Set No. 1 includes: Meet the Fockers/Meet the Parents.
2-DVD Set No. 1 includes: Meet the Parents/Midnight Run.

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com [AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [NTSC, Region 2] | Amazon.com [PAL, Region 2]
2-DVD No. 1: Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1]
2-DVD No. 2: Amazon.com [Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1]
VHS: Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC] | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL, German]
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [CD]

DVD>
2-DVD No. 2>
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Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)