Very nice comedy; spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (24 February 2002)

"Meet the Parents" plays pretty much like one of these Chevy Chase Vacation-movies, in which the comedian plays a lovely father who just tries to darn hard to create the mother of all vacations. Planning everything, even the fun, he removes every chance at spontaneity, and eventually manages to accomplish quite the opposite of what he originally had in might. Everything he didn't goof up himself, will be done for him by the numerous crazies he meets along the way.
In "Meet the Parents", likeable nurse Gay is about to propose to his lovely fiancée Pam Martha in a rather cute way, when she gets a call (blast those infernal cellular phones!) from her sister, who announces she'll be getting married within two weeks. Not wanting to ruin the momentum, Gay postpones his proposal and joins Pam for her sister's wedding, seeing it as a chance to meet -and impress- his future parents-in-law.
The Father-in-law is played by Robert deNiro, who has played a friendly character on one or two occasions, but is best known for his psycho's. Along with the equally semi-sane looking Jack Nicholson, he is the manifestation of all sons-in-law fears. You do NOT want to see either one of those popping up behind the door.
"Meet the father" would have be a better title as this is Ben Stiller's and Robert DeNiro's film from the start. Mom is just there to gasp and shriek once in a while.
It is almost impossible to get off on the right foot here, as Gay's last name happens to be Focker, and since Pam's middle name is Martha, her parents quickly realize her name will be Martha Focker (don't read it, say it!).
The best scene is obviously the diner scene, because it is fairly recognizable and painful. Guy manages to say and do all the wrong things and mock up beyond your own worst disaster scenario's. The moment when he verbally corners himself with the 'if it has nipples, you can milk it' story, is a great laugh-out-loud moment.
But then, a whole bunch of relatives show up and the movie went somewhat downhill from there. Up to this point, it was just Stiller and deNiro one-on-one, but now there's distraction from a bunch of quite unnecessary and shallow characters, like Pam's little brother who is only there to give the impression that Guy is a 'smoker'.
Will there be a happy end? Would it be a spoiler if I said "yes"? But, fortunately, the ending stays in tone with the rest of the film, so at least we don't have people falling into each others arm, stating how much they love each other.
Really good fun.
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