| | | First comes love. Then comes the interrogation.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby Digital (5.1), Director Commentary, Production Notes, Deleted Scenes,Theatrical Trailers
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 hysterically by Academy Award winner 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 hilarious 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.Meet the Parents, from the director of Austin Powers, is an uproarious blockbuster hit that bombards you with one laugh after another, as true love tries to conquer all, against all odds.
"Hilarious! Impossible not to laugh!" Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"Laugh out loud funny." Jeff Craig, SIXTY SECOND PREVIEW
"This buoyant, giddy comedy of catastrophe is the funniest film of the year...finely cast and always outrageous..." Los Angeles Times
"Thumbs up! I laughed all the way through!" Roger Ebert, EBERT & ROEPER AND THE MOVIES
"...consistently funny without the calculated gross-out moments that have been dominating mainstream comedy..." Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News
"A five star hoot." Neil Smith, BBC Online
"The best American comedy of 2000. It has wit, slapstick and romance -- as well as an improbable comedy team in Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller..." Thomas Delapa, Boulder Weekly
Editor's Note
MEET THE PARENTS stars Ben Stiller as the unfortunately named Greg Focker, a neurotic nurse intent on marrying his girlfriend, Pam (Teri Polo). But when the couple visits Pam's family home for her sister's wedding, he must first win the approval of her father, Jack (Robert De Niro), a protective ex-CIA agent. Before long, the awkward Greg and the suspicious Jack go head-to-head, resulting in hilarious scenes that feature a lie detector test, a suburban car chase, a toilet-trained cat, and a mean game of water volleyball. As the misunderstandings and mistakes reach an almost nightmarish peak, it seems as though Greg may never win over Pam's unflinching guardian. Featuring the inspired pairing of Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller (and an excellent appearance by Owen Wilson), director Jay Roach's clever comedy exemplifies every man's worst fears about courtship. When things for Stiller's character get bad, they just continue to get worse, culminating in a ridiculously funny airport scene. In the tradition of ANNIE HALL and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, MEET THE PARENTS is an intelligent yet slapstick comedy about the eccentricities of the American family.
| Features | Theatrical Trailer | | Lie Detector test | | Cast and Filmmakers Biographies and Film Highlights | | English Audio: 5.1 Surround/DTS 5.1 Surround | | French Audio: 5.1 Surround | | Deleted Scenes and Outtakes | | Games, Screen Savers | | Production Notes | | Spotlight on Location | | Feature Commentary with Director Jay Roach | | Feature Commentary with Cast Members Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 5/6/2003 |
| Running Time: 108 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2000 | | Catalog ID: 21133 | | UPC: 00025192113321 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
MTV Award (2001) |  | Ben Stiller, Winner, Best Comedic Performance | |
People's Choice (2001) | | Meet the Parents, Winner, Favorite Comedy Motion Picture | |
Oscar (2001) | | | Randy Newman ("A Fool In Love"), Nominee, Best Music, Original Song | |
Golden Globe (2001) | | | Robert De Niro, Nominee, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical | |
MTV Award (2001) | | Robert De Niro ("Are you a pothead, Focker?"), Winner, Best Line from a Movie | | | Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Nominee, Best On-Screen Team |
| Memorable Quotes| "Be nice to this one, okay? I really like him."----Pam (Teri Polo) to her father, Jack (Robert De Niro) |"Okay, I'll try."----Jack | | "The dog is an emotionally shallow animal."----Jack to Greg (Ben Stiller), regarding the superiority of cats over dogs | | "See, Greg, if you yell at a dog, his ears will go down and his tail will cover his genitals even if he's done nothing wrong. It's very easy to break a dog. But cats make you work for their affection. Cats don't sell out like dogs do."----Jack to Greg | | "I had no idea you could milk a cat."----Dina (Blythe Danner) to Greg | | "I'm a patient man. That's what nineteen months in a POW camp will do to you. If I think you're trying to corrupt my firstborn child in any way, I will bring you down, baby! I will bring you down to Chinatown!"----Jack to Greg |
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...MEET THE PARENTS presents Mr. De Niro as any man's worst nightmare....A singular achievement." 10/06/2000 p.E10USA Today
"...[The filmmakers] cast the perfect foils [Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller]....One can only say amen to the comedy gods for Stiller's desperate stab at saying grace..." -- 3 out of 4 stars 10/06/2000 p.2E Entertainment Weekly
"...The casting is inspired, leading with [Stiller]....It goes down like a flute of Champagne, leaving an aftertaste of giggles..." -- Rating: B 10/06/2000 pp.51-2 Total Film
"...Painfully funny and funnily painful, MEET THE PARENTS is top drawer, grown-up comedy. A date movie with teeth..." 01/01/2000 p.86-7 Sight and Sound
"...A well-executed mainstream comedy....[With] an acute, insightful commentary..." 01/01/2001 p.54-5 Rolling Stone
"...De Niro gives his best comic performance to date....Owen Wilson is a merry standout..." 10/26/2000 p.121 Los Angeles Times
"...This buoyant, giddy comedy of catastrophe is the funniest film of the year so far....MEET THE PARENTS is finely cast and always outrageous..." 10/06/2000 p.C1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Ben Stiller has a good line in embarrassment and chagrin. His chiseled face looks so earnest, so willing to please, and turn incredulous as the world conspires against him..." 10/06/2000 p.39 Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Ben Stiller has a good line in embarrassment and chagrin. His chiseled face looks so earnest, so willing to please, and turns incredulous as the world conspires against him. In "There's Something About Mary" and again in "Meet the Parents," he plays a young man who desperately wants to impress the girl he loves and plunges into a series of humiliating miscalculations. He doesn't have anything hanging from his ear in this picture, but he acts as if he thinks he might...In "Meet the Parents," he plays the unfortunately named Greg Focker. That's not his real name; Focker is, Greg isn't. He is in love with a Chicago schoolteacher named Pam (Teri Polo), who takes him home to meet her parents on Long Island. Her dad, Jack, is played by Robert De Niro as the nightmare of every hopeful groom. He is a reasonable man, his reason operating like a steel vise to clamp down on every contradiction and improbability in Greg's conversation..."Meet the Parents" was directed by Jay Roach, who made the "Austin Powers" movies and here shows he can dial down from farce into a comedy of (bad) manners. His movie is funnier because it never tries too hard; De Niro, in particular, gets laughs by leaning back and waiting for them to come to him. And Stiller is like the target in a dunk-the-clown game, smiling while the world falls out from under him. - Roger Ebert
James Berardinelli's ReelViews 7 of 10
Meet the Parents is not a terrible film - there are enough amusing moments to keep things from becoming tedious - but it lacks a few of the key ingredients (like comic momentum) that would have made it a consistently entertaining endeavor. Much like the aforementioned Vacation films, this one proceeds according to a formula, allowing nothing to deter it from its preordained trajectory. Unfortunately, there are times when being on such a rigidly constrained track smothers the potential for off-the-wall comedy (I'm sure the desire to obtain a "PG-13" rating had something to do with that, as well). The only chances Meet the Parents takes are safe chances. During a scene when the septic tank backs up, I laughed because it was funny in a gross way, not because it was daring. With a lesser known cast using the same screenplay, this might have been headed directly to the Blockbuster near you. Even with Stiller and De Niro, Meet the Parents is an encounter that can be postponed until it's available on video. - James Berardinelli
ReelViews 7 of 10
Like Analyze This, Meet the Parents plays off De Niro's intimidating reputation as a psycho/gangster/all-around badass. Here, he portrays the living embodiment of every guy's nightmare: the girlfriend's father. The role certainly doesn't make undue demands of De Niro. By playing things straight, he milks the greatest comic potential out of an uneven screenplay...In Analyze This, De Niro proved beyond any doubt that he can be as adept at comedy as at drama, and there's nothing in Meet the Parents to challenge that conclusion...Unfortunately, the movie as a whole doesn't live up to its top-billed actor's performance. Meet the Parents is put together like a TV sit-com...Meet the Parents is not a terrible film - there are enough amusing moments to keep things from becoming tedious - but it lacks a few of the key ingredients (like comic momentum) that would have made it a consistently entertaining endeavor. Much like the aforementioned Vacation films, this one proceeds according to a formula, allowing nothing to deter it from its preordained trajectory. Unfortunately, there are times when being on such a rigidly constrained track smothers the potential for off-the-wall comedy (I'm sure the desire to obtain a "PG-13" rating had something to do with that, as well). The only chances Meet the Parents takes are safe chances. - James Berardinelli
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