A "must see" movie!

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2004)

Imagine asking Robert De Niro for his daughter's hand in marriage. (Shudder!) Now imagine he's an ex-CIA agent who keeps a lie detector in his basement. (Eek!) Now imagine you're Ben Stiller.
Now you see where "Meet the Parents" gets all its best laughs.
A middling comedy-of-the-uncomfortable escapade in which casting is the key, "Parents" stars Stiller as Greg Focker, a very nervous boyfriend spending a nightmare weekend at the childhood home of the girl he loves (Teri Polo).
Plagued by Murphy's Law while trying desperately to buddy up to her folks, Greg's missing luggage containing the engagement ring is the least of his problems (that is, until the wrong bag is delivered later, packed with S&M paraphernalia). He can't seem to get a laugh out of Mom (Blythe Danner) and Dad to save his life. His little white lies -- a domino effect begun when his girlfriend whispers "Oh, yeah, and we're not living together," as they arrive -- keep coming back to bite him in the backside. And before long the slapstick kicks in: A spilled urn of grandma's remains, a sorry substitute for a missing housecat and an overflowing septic tank are all pivotal gags in what should be a side-splitting comedy.
When he and De Niro are playing off each other, this gag-fest is at its best -- but mostly because De Niro has a hilarious arsenal of innocuously threatening glances he keeps feeding the camera at a steady clip. He catches Stiller poking around the polygraph machine in his concealed workshop and says "Go ahead, try it on!" like a suspiciously encouraging carnival barker.
Overall: 9.5/10