Disappointing comedy.....

Rating: 4/10 (10 May 2001)

I guess I'm in the minority when I say that I found "Meet the Parents" to be very disappointing. In spite of all the hype and advertising, I just didn't think the film was funny. I mean when the running joke of the movie is the hero's surname (Focker) you know the producers are going to be hard up for laughs. And yes, we are again exposed to yet another "typical American family" living in an upscale neighborhood with riches and privileges only few outside the movie colony can afford.
Ben Stiller as the hero does the best that he can with limited material. Robert DeNiro as the prospective father-in-law is again parodying his tough guy image, but it doesn't come off this time as well as it did in "Analyze This" (1999). DeNiro's performance, I thought, was a bit over the top, and was for the first time a performance of his that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. The performance of Teri Polo as Stiller's love interest didn't impress me. Blythe Danner is wasted as DeNiro's scatterbrained wife. Owen Wilson's character is a bit of a mystery. How are we to believe that a hugely successful businessman such as he seems to be, can't even get a date for dinner "at the Club". My god, even ex-beauty queen Phyllis George is in the cast, but if you blink you'll miss her.
I was not impressed with the be-belittling of the nursing profession or the continuous insults heaped upon the Stiller character. If fact, I was rooting for him to turn around and walk out right from the beginning. Both Stiller and DeNiro have done and will do better. Extremely disappointing.