Absolutely a Riot!

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2000)

Meet the Parents is the funniest movie of the year, no questions asked! Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller are absolutely HILARIOUS! I knew I would love this movie from the very beginning.
This movie works on so many levels. Not only is the movie absolutely hilarious from start to finish, it also has a lot of sad and touching elements. Ben Stiller is great as the unfortunately named Greg Focker (who does resemble his character in There's Something About Mary a little too much) and Robert DeNiro is fantastic as Jack Byrnes, a would-be father-in-law from Hell. DeNiro is much better in this movie than his terrible role in the atrocious Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle simply because he is more relaxed and has much more fun with this character. Stiller and DeNiro make such a good team in this movie, also. Both of them make the perfect reactions to all the absolutely humiliating mishaps Greg does in the movie. All the horrible things Greg does, from losing DeNiro's dear cat to breaking a girl's nose to setting the house on fire, none of them would have been as funny as they were if DeNiro didn't do such a good job reacting to the accidents when he would find out about them. And some of the scenes (Greg saying grace at the dinner table and the fabulous interrogation scenes) are absolutely IMPOSSIBLE not to scream out laughing.
And although the movie does have a little too much in common with There's Something About Mary, it still has all new laughs that are very fresh and are absolutely a riot!