A Major Disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (12 August 2002)

You'd think black romantic comedy + Robert De Niro + Ben Stiller = great fun wouldn't you ? But MEET THE PARENTS is an extremely disappointing film . Some of my disappointment might be down to the trailers I'd seen ( Which basically contain all the amusing moments ) which led me to believe I'd be seeing a film similar to THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY . Okay there's a couple of bad taste moments and there's a subplot involving a cat but there's nothing I found to be laugh outloud funny . De Niro - Like in WE 'RE NO ANGELS - seems to think comedy involves entirely of mugging for the camera , it's sad to point this out but De Niro is doing himself no favours by appearing in all these films , a few more unfunny comedies like this and Travis Bickle will be a distant memory . And as another reviewer pointed out watching this film after September 11th 2001 makes it even more unfunny
Update 2005 : Having recently rewatched this movie I wish to point out that is does slightly improve over time