Good Vehicle for Stiller

Rating: Null/10 (2 March 2002)

Satisfying 'forget your troubles' comedy that is loosely based on the funny French farce titled WHAT A SHITTY DAY. Americanized to a stretched out TV sitcom with all the standardized mechanisms in place. Here Stiller plays your thirtysomething 'average Joe' off to meet his girlfriends parents whose father is especially picky, conservative, opinionated, and abrasive. This of course opens the floodgates for what is just one embarrassing (and uncomfortable) situation after another. As everything that can go wrong in meeting your girlfriends parents does.
Runs so close to form that there's really no use to describe it further. Though there are a few 'laugh out loud' scenes. They include a funny family water polo game and a inadvertent DeNiro/Stiller drag race.
Stiller does well in what is obviously a tailored made vehicle. He is this generations Bob Newhart/John Ritter. Charmingly underplaying all the wackiness around him while still having just the right amount of pratfalls.
DeNiro is good (of course) in a role where he finally gets to show his true age. Danner though, as the mother, is completely wasted. Outside of jumping into a pool with all her clothes on, she has nothing funny to say or do. In fact the pet cat (named Jinx) comes off with a more interesting personality.
Generally solid non-think entertainment with a quick chance to see that Phyllis George is still alive. The former NFL TODAY/CBS MORNING NEWS hostess appears very briefly as a mother of another fiancee.