Meet the Parents (2001, VHS)

I will admit that I went into watching Meet The Parents with relatively low expectations. In fact, I didn t even see the film in the theater. It was only after much nagging from my then-girlfriend did I even finally watch it. I was a marginal Ben Stiller fan at best and while Robert DeNiro is one of my all-time favorite actors, I couldn t imagine he would be entertaining in a comedy (she didn t know about Midnight Run, so my argument was partially valid). Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at the results.

Meet The Parents really offers nothing new to the world of cinema. It is the typical boy loves girl, boy wants to marry girl, boy meets overprotective father and chaos ensues. You ve seen the story in countless films and probably every dumb sitcom ever made. Luckily, some incredibly funny scenes and some good performances are able to make this cliche' ridden script work.

Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is in love with Pam (Teri Polo) and is planning on asking her to marry him. While in the process, she receives a call from her sister to let her know that she s getting married and her fiancee was smart enough to ask their father for permission. Ooops, Greg hadn t planned on that. So, he backs out and the two head home for the upcoming family nuptials, as well as to meet her parents.

Once there, her father, Jack (Robert DeNiro), and Greg are immediately at odds. They clearly are completely different people. While Jack claims to have been in the rare plant business, it s clear that he s covering something up. Jack makes fun of Greg s name, considers smoking to be a sign of weakness and basically doesn t think a male nurse is good enough for his daughter.

Greg spends the entire film trying to achieve Jack s approval. Unfortunately, he manages to get caught up in a series of unpredictable and in some cases unbelievable situations that seem to show him as a liar, buffoon and idiot. As you can imagine, the majority of the problems are not his fault and eventually Jack comes around and realizes that Greg would be perfect for his daughter.

There is without question that Meet The Parents has some of the funniest scenes from any recent comedy, regardless how contrived they may be. There are two prime examples. First is a dinner scene that involves a cat and an urn. The setup is clear, yet it still manages to work. Along the same lines is the water volleyball scene where Greg manages to screw up the game and humiliate the bride to be. This broad comedy approach is clearly not groundbreaking, but is necessary to make the more subtle comedy work.

The subtle comedy of the film is clearly the best part. And, without the excellent performances of Robert DeNiro, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson (Kevin), it wouldn t work. Any successful comedy can fill itself with wacky antics and outrageous setups. However, the successful ones need quirky dialogue and funny character interaction to really work. Watching Stiller and DeNiro react off of each other is great. They have a great chemistry together that completely took me by surprise. I was less surprised by the scenes with Stiller and Wilson. I assumed they would be funny together and I wasn t disappointed. The whole kitchen scene at Kevin s house is basically a riff among Stiller, DeNiro and Wilson and it s downright hilarious.

The recent Special Edition DVD release of Meet The Parents offers tons of extras. There are a whopping 35 new outtakes, as well as several deleted scenes offered with this release, along with the original outtakes from the previous DVD release. Why, is another question. The film itself slowly falls apart around the midway point, so the extra scenes that are meant to supplement the film belong on the cutting room floor for a reason. Few of them are entertaining and even the die-hard fan will be uninterested. The heavily hyped, DeNiro Unplugged deleted scene should have been left in the vault, never to be seen again. Even more disappointing is that the original commentary with Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro isn t included on this improved DVD. Instead, we get a commentary with director Jay Roach and editor John Poll. This was a big mistake. While DeNiro and Stiller aren t Brad Pitt when it comes to commentaries, they are clearly more entertaining and offer more interesting tidbits than Roach and Poll. Be sure not to waste a single moment on the two featurettes, Silly Cat Tricks and The Truth About Lying. Usually, the extras on DVDs are superfluous at best and lame at the worst. Here, on Meet The Parents, they are a detriment to the DVD. They offer nothing and didn t even improve on the extras from the previous DVD release. At least there is a free ticket to see Meet The Fockers included. That can be worth almost 10 bucks depending on the cost of movie tickets where you live.

Meet The Parents is far from a perfect film. As funny as the first half of the picture is, the second part of the film really falls apart. There are few laughs at the end and the predictability of the film really kicks in. You know that everything is going to work out, so the film goes on autopilot to reach the obvious conclusion. It s almost as if the script was put together in two portions, the funny first part and the standard second part (including the incredibly tired Focker jokes). Even Stiller and DeNiro, who are very funny early on, almost mail it in the second half.

Amazingly, I can actually give a slight recommendation to Meet The Parents based solely on the first half of the film. There are tons of quotable lines and the chemistry between DeNiro and Stiller is unmatched. Also the scenes with Owen Wilson are just too funny to miss. The poor DVD release also gives me a few reservations, but I can ignore those problems because the real reason to buy the DVD is for the movie itself. The sad thing is, as funny as the film starts off, it manages to fizzle just as bad at the end. Nonetheless, watch the first hour and laugh your guts out, then turn it off and watch or do something else.