Not really suitable for grown-ups

Rating: 1/10 (21 October 2004)

Perhaps this film gets better towards the end. I wouldn't know; I walked out after about forty minutes.
The central premises of the film are that only a monster wouldn't find the Ben Stiller character lovable; and that the Robert de Niro character is a monster. It didn't work for me; Stiller was silly and tedious - the sort of guy any responsible father would want to keep out of the family - and de Niro was much less overbearing and unpleasant than he might have been. Perhaps he should have been played by a slimy Limey? That could have made for much more interesting (but less contrived) plot and characterisation, without necessarily changing the nature of the film.