Meet the Parents

Rating:
Summary: Mildly amusing, but completely forgettable.
Review: If you loved "There's Something About Mary" or are an avid Ben Stiller fan, you will probably love this movie. In my opinion it's a 2-star movie, at the most.. I wouldn't mind seeing it again on TV someday, but I wouldn't want to own it. It's often funny, but not funny enough to make it a great comedy. In general it's just silly and shallow, and (deliberately, but irritatingly) far-fetched in its effort to take the situation of a guy meeting his girlfriend's parents to its NIGHTMARISH extremes. Robert De Niro is good (when isn't he?) but the movie certainly doesn't do him justice. Teri Polo is bloodless as Greg Focker (Ben Stiller)'s girlfriend.. there isn't an ounce of character in her performance. Ben Stiller is about the same as he was in "There's Something About Mary".
This movie is extremely mainstream and suburban in its attitudes, with a lot of assumptions about what "everyone" will be able to relate to (especially in the few DVD extras, such as interviews with the actors & director which amazed me by how seriously they apparently took this movie, and a "lie-detector test" in which you are asked about what disastrous situations you yourself have been in when you've met your girlfriend's or boyfriend's parents). If you love the movie, I'm sure you'll love the extras.. personally I just found them irritating.
I highly recommend renting this movie before buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Meet The Parents
Review: Meet The Parents is one of the funniest movies I've seen. Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro are hilarious together in one of the funniest movies about making a first impression. Along with a great supporting cast and all out laugh out loud scenes, Meet The Parents. Is easily a must have for all comedy lovers.

Stiller is Greg, a male nurse who loves his girlfriend Pam. When attempting to "pop the questions" to her, he's interrupted when she gets a phone call from her sister and her sister tells her that she just got engaged to her boyfriend and that they were going to get married. Now Pam has to go home for her sister's wedding and Greg has to meet her parents for the first time. Greg then decides that this is the perfect opportunity to get to know her folks, get close with them and ultimately gain the trust to marry Pam. Boy was he ever wrong!

This movie is all about what could go wrong in one weekend. Ben Still and Robert DeNiro steal the entire show, the whole way through. Honestly, after a while you really start to believe that DeNiro and Stiller really have a heated rivalry. Plus the humor is just funny, from the one-liners to the physical comedy to the sweet but funny as hell romantic comedy in this movie, your ribs will be killing for days.

This is a great romantic comedy, a perfect way to study as well for anyone who's meeting their girlfriend/boyfriend's parents for the first time. If you're looking for another great romantic comedy, check out LOVE STINKS with French Stewart. Again, great movie, 5 stars for Meet The Parents.

Rating:
Summary: A painfully funny gem
Review: Ben Stiller makes us squirm in this exaggerated but true tale of a hapless guy's encounter with his true love's domineering and bizarre parents. Stiller is real and yet hysterical, and Robert de Niro's squinty-eyed future dad causes me to appreciate my own father-in-law. Owen Wilson's cameo as the former boyfriend is one of the high points of the movie. The best bit, though, is the wittily written dialogue which will remain a permanent part of your conversation. Long after you've wiped the tears of hilarity away, you will find yourself blurting out in public for no discernable reason, "I have nipples. Can you milk me?"

Rating:
Summary: Thumbs down
Review: I had heard this movie was funny, wonderful, etc but really, it is really a poor film. If you like Robert De Niro before, you won't like him in this as he is totally miscast. The humour in the film is average, and while there are some funny parts it is too over the top predictable crap. We turned it off in the last five minutes because it was just too far fetched. Granted, the movie started out ok and the storyline was promising, but within forty minutes it slowly died. Why does Hollywood keep making these crappy films. Moreover, why do big names like De Niro and Stiller do them - don't they read the scripts first?

Rating:
Summary: Humor lessened by innuendo
Review: This movie was hilarious during many parts. Poor Mr. Focker's constant streak of problems really had me rolling on the floor. I loved this screwball element, the neverending onslaught of difficulty and misunderstanding. But all of the sexual and homosexual double entendres really distracted me from the humor, because I don't find such shallow jokes and things funny at all.

I would like to watch Meet the Parents again for the intriguing plot, but I would find it difficult because all of the less than funny things really take away from the experience.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC COMEDY!!
Review: The plot? Ben Stiller is a nurse, very much in love with Teri Polo. Just as he is about to propose, he comes to know about Teri's sister's engagement to some doctor ' guy who was courteous enough to ask Teri's father before asking her sister! Obviously Ben wants to be in the good books of Teri. As a result, he decides to spend the weekend with Teri's parents. Of course, he screws up the weekend, with the aid of my man ' Robert De Nero, who is Teri's father (surprise!) and is, in not in a mood to have a nurse as his son ' in ' law. A slew of idiosyncrasies exhibited by Ben soon follow, till the movie ends. The end? (Take a guess.)
The movie is a war between a nurse (Ben) and an ex ' C.I.A. interrogator (De Nero) ' the former trying to win the heart of the latter, and the latter finding it hard to accept the former because of a lot of things, such as the former's name, profession, hatred towards cats, and a whole lot of other goofy things, which make up the movie.
Ben can be looked upon with pity, considering the things he has to go through, throughout the weekend, but the movie is, by no means, a warm hearted comedy. So, laugh your heart out on Ben, as he makes a total [donkey] of himself (very seriously), with no sense of pathos. The humor is not merely slapstick and is, in a lot of parts, very subtle. Apart from Ben, falling off the roof of the house, making a fruitless attempt to catch De Nero's pet cat and almost setting the house on fire and making a healthy contribution to overflowing the septic tank (and blaming the cat for doing it, on top of that) the funny bits are well contained within formal conversation between Di Nero & Ben, with a stoic expression on the faces of both which makes the comedy more mordant and funny. The exchange of words between Ben & Robert which appear seething on the surface, is what gives a high to the movie. Even as Ben breaks up before the flight attendant, towards the end of the movie, while returning home after a terrible weekend, makes us laugh rather than feel sorry for him.
The end is as sweet as it can get, with things, somehow patched up between Di Nero and Ben, of course. All is well that ends well'.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good, but Not Remarkable
Review: I've seen this movie a few times, and I still think it's funny... but I don't consider it to be "one of the best ever", as some have perceived it.

A lot of what happens to Greg is identifiable by the average fiancee, which is what makes it funny, but some of it is so extravagant it's unbelievable, which I think detracts from the story a bit. That, and the number of things which happen to him -- he hits Pam's sister in the nose with a volleyball, he sets their wedding gazebo on fire, he loses Jinx (the cat), tries to replace Jinx with a look-alike, he backs-up the septic system creating quite a mess in the backyard, et al. It almost buckles under its own weight.

Yet, despite these things, it's still funny. I think what keeps it afloat is the acting. Stiller is perfectly set as the hapless fall-guy Focker. DeNiro does very well playing the suspicious father / former CIA detective. Wilson does pretty well as the "perfect" ex-boyfriend, although they probably could've gotten someone even better. And Polo is well set as the beautiful girlfriend. And they have a great upper-middle-class setting as well.

Avid Ben Stiller fans will probably be all over this movie. I'm happy enough to see it on cable occasionally, but not to own it. (Lastly, I'd actually like to put in a rating of 3.5 stars.)

Rating:
Summary: Funniest of all time!!!
Review: I thought the part when Gaylord got Debbie in the face was hilarious. It was disgusting, though. I think this is a great movie for any age even though it's PG-13. Viewers would be laughing their heads off!

Rating:
Summary: Over-hyped
Review: When this film hit the theaters, a lot of people I know made it out to be the funniest thing in a long time. So after renting the film I'm sorry to say that I just don't see it.
It had it's funny moments, but it seemed to get more boring as it went along. Some of the jokes were really funny, but others were just lame.
I mean most of us have been in Stiller's shoes at one time or another. And I have to say that not even the biggest loser wimp that I know would have put up with some of that treatment. Sometimes I just didn't find the abuse he took was funny. ...

Rating:
Summary: a very entertaining comedy!
Review: Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller give a brilliant performance in this extraordinary comedy!I laughed my head off.This movie is definetely a must have.I've been trying to find this dvd in China for more than one year.Impossible!The dvd has lots of special features.