2000
Directed by Jay Roach
I feel as though this is the spiritual successor of There's Something About Mary. I won't completely destroy this movie, as Robert De Niro's presence elevates it into something greater. At least, that's what I tried to tell myself during the sewage scenes.
So like I said, it's pretty much There's Something About Mary, but surprisingly, it manages to be even grosser. In TSAM, Ben Stiller was trying to impress the girl. In Meet the Parents, he has the girl, now he is trying to impress the father. It plays on every "father with a shotgun" cliche in the book and rarely covers new ground. To give you an example of the screenwriters' ingenuity, I will reveal that the main character's name is Gaylord Focker.
Like I said in my TSAM review (an abbreviation I am clearly trying to get started), if this film made you laugh, I'm glad. We need more laughter in this world and I would never begrudge anyone for being amused. Still, I don't think a film like this should be in The Book. One Ben Stiller comedy was more than enough.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
Anthony Hopkins was considered for the role of Jack.
Painfully, achingly, excruciatingly unfunny film
ReplyDeleteThere are many movies in this list which I may not like, but for each in its own way I can understand why it was selected. Some may have artistic merit even if the overall result wasn't to my taste. Some may have gone on to be influential. Some may have had a hype so large that they developed their own laws of gravity and orbit (EG: Independence Day). Some were simply representative or a star, a director or a genre that needed mentioning rather than that the film itself was individually brilliant. But Meet The Parents is the only entry on the list that I simply cannot fathom. It got removed in later versions of the book, thankfully.
Little, if anything, to argue here .. Like TSAM, the very occasional twitching of the smile muscles, but overall.. no.
ReplyDeleteI really can't understand the inclusion either. I don't even think this is one of those films that inspired a bunch of sucky copies. Maybe it did and I am just unaware.
ReplyDeleteOK I have to confess. I laughed really hard at a few parts.I don't even remember all of the movie now, and I wouldn't watch it again....but I did think parts were funny! 😳
ReplyDeleteNo laugh shaming here! Glad you found something worthwhile in it!
ReplyDelete