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Meet the Parents

  • 2000
  • PG-13
  • 1h 48m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
370K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,925
170
Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents (2000)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:42
2 Videos
97 Photos
Romantic ComedySlapstickComedyRomance

Chicago male nurse and chronic under-achiever Greg Focker meets his charming teacher girlfriend Pam Byrnes' parents Jack and Dina before proposing, but suspicious Jack is an overprotective f... Read allChicago male nurse and chronic under-achiever Greg Focker meets his charming teacher girlfriend Pam Byrnes' parents Jack and Dina before proposing, but suspicious Jack is an overprotective former CIA agent - every date's worst nightmare.Chicago male nurse and chronic under-achiever Greg Focker meets his charming teacher girlfriend Pam Byrnes' parents Jack and Dina before proposing, but suspicious Jack is an overprotective former CIA agent - every date's worst nightmare.

  • Director
    • Jay Roach
  • Writers
    • Greg Glienna
    • Mary Ruth Clarke
    • Jim Herzfeld
  • Stars
    • Ben Stiller
    • Robert De Niro
    • Teri Polo
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    370K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,925
    170
    • Director
      • Jay Roach
    • Writers
      • Greg Glienna
      • Mary Ruth Clarke
      • Jim Herzfeld
    • Stars
      • Ben Stiller
      • Robert De Niro
      • Teri Polo
    • 577User reviews
    • 101Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 7 wins & 15 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:42
    Official Trailer
    25 Movies That Almost Starred Robert De Niro
    Video 3:08
    25 Movies That Almost Starred Robert De Niro
    25 Movies That Almost Starred Robert De Niro
    Video 3:08
    25 Movies That Almost Starred Robert De Niro

    Photos97

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    Top cast43

    Edit
    Ben Stiller
    Ben Stiller
    • Greg Focker
    Robert De Niro
    Robert De Niro
    • Jack Byrnes
    Teri Polo
    Teri Polo
    • Pam Byrnes
    Blythe Danner
    Blythe Danner
    • Dina Byrnes
    Nicole DeHuff
    Nicole DeHuff
    • Debbie Byrnes
    Jon Abrahams
    Jon Abrahams
    • Denny Byrnes
    Owen Wilson
    Owen Wilson
    • Kevin Rawley
    James Rebhorn
    James Rebhorn
    • Dr. Larry Banks
    Tom McCarthy
    Tom McCarthy
    • Bob Banks
    • (as Thomas McCarthy, Tom McCarthy)
    Phyllis George
    Phyllis George
    • Linda Banks
    Kali Rocha
    Kali Rocha
    • Flight Attendant
    Bernie Sheredy
    Bernie Sheredy
    • Norm the Interrogator
    Judah Friedlander
    Judah Friedlander
    • Pharmacy Clerk
    Peter Bartlett
    Peter Bartlett
    • Animal Shelter Worker
    John Elsen
    John Elsen
    • Chicago Airport Security
    Mark Hammer
    • Hospital Patient
    Amy Hohn
    Amy Hohn
    • Ticket Agent
    William Severs
    • Father O'Boyle
    • Director
      • Jay Roach
    • Writers
      • Greg Glienna
      • Mary Ruth Clarke
      • Jim Herzfeld
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews577

    7.0369.8K
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    Featured reviews

    9deloudelouvain

    Love it! Can watch it over and over again.

    Haha this is one of those comedies that you will always remember. Full of classic lines that my wife and I constantly use on daily bases, like "if it has teat then you can milk it, puff the magical dragon, the circle of trust and so on..." Meet The Parents is full of those phrases that makes me laugh every time I think about it. And that's what defines a good comedy to me. If I watch a comedy I want to laugh and with this one it's what you get. Some people might not like it but then to me they just don't have a sense of humor and that's just a pity for them. You have to like Ben Stiller though because it's basically him that is the great comedian of the movie. If you don't like him you probably not going to like the movie either. Like I don't like the movies with Adam Sandler. I think that guy is not funny and so his comedies are painful to watch for me. In Meet The Parents the whole story is basically about the relation between Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro that plays his role brilliantly as well by the way. The other actors are good as well but it's not them that carry the movie. To me it's already a classic movie when I think about the best comedies I ever saw.
    7linder9

    don't watch the last 20 minutes.

    very edge of your seat, squirm-fest. lots of laughs as you cower in embarrassment. could have utilized Owen Wilson more. i loved it... but the ending was so straight forward and devoid of any comedic relief. it becomes one big sappy cliche. why?
    7rbverhoef

    Painfully funny

    Most of the funny moments in 'Meet the Parents' involve painful scenes with Ben Stiller. He plays Greg Focker, a male nurse who loves Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo). He wants to marry her with her father's permission. He hasn't met her parents yet. The movie shows us the weekend where Stiller meets the parents. Pam's father is Jack (Robert De Niro) and her mother is Dina (Blythe Danner). The more Greg tries to impress the parents, especially Jack who is a former CIA-agent, the more he humiliates himself. Not only with his actions, also with his words and stupid lies to look better.

    Stiller is perfect in this kind of role. We already saw that, especially in 'There's Something About Mary'. The more he gets in trouble, the more painful it gets, the better Stiller gets and the more we laugh. There is also a fine little part from Owen Wilson as Pam's former lover. Stiller and Wilson have made a lot of films together and for some reason their scenes always work, they at least make you smile. De Niro doesn't try very hard to be a strict person who doesn't give Greg a chance and therefore succeeds even better. The way he slowly gets harder and harder on Greg is good for a new laugh every time. 'Meet the Parents', directed by Jay Roach who also directed the 'Austin Powers' trilogy, is a fine comedy with a lot of sequences where you might feel a little uncomfortable.
    Buddy-51

    a truly marvelous comedy

    Funny as well as touching, `Meet the Parents' blazes forth as one of the outstanding comedies of recent years.

    Co-writers Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke, along with director Jay Roach, have managed to make a film that is often laugh-out-loud hilarious without ever becoming overbearing or obnoxious, the style of choice for far too many other comedies made in this day and age. Although the film overflows with madcap situations and even outright slapstick at times, these comic elements are always tethered to the reality of the premise and to the emotional states of the characters involved.

    The foundation for any great comedy must, first and foremost, be its ability to connect with its audience on a personal level. `Meet the Parents' does so from the very start by tapping into the universal dilemma we all face at one time or another of desperately trying to make a good impression on someone we feel holds nothing less than the fate of our lives in their own two hands. For some of us this person might come in the form a boss or a potential employer or, as in poor Greg Focker's case, those most dreaded figures of all – the prospective in-laws. The comedy arises from seeing the chain of ever more preposterous events and circumstances that come along to sabotage his efforts. Greg is a goodhearted, well-meaning nebbish who wants nothing more out of life than to marry Pam, the girl he loves. First, however, he must climb over the rather formidable barrier of her eccentric father, Jack Byrnes, played to perfection by Robert De Niro, who certainly has his own offbeat way of looking at the world.

    The triumph of this film is that it never overdoes anything. The people in Pam's family and in their coterie of friends are all twisted it's true, but twisted in sly, subtle ways that knock both Greg and us slightly off our balance. Like Greg, we never quite know where these people are coming from and this greatly enhances the comedic quality of the film. Tone is everything in comedy and here the tone is just right. Byrnes can seem at one moment to be a reasonable loving father, then turn immediately around and make the most unbalanced comments about the most trivial matters. Even when the movie is at its most outrageous in terms of plot complications and slapstick, it never veers off the scale into incredibility. Part of the reason is that we feel so much empathy for Greg, the best Everyman character I have seen in a movie in a long time. Ben Stiller gives a beautifully understated comic performance in the main role. Greg's completely understandable feelings of nervousness, intimidation and growing frustration help to keep the film anchored in reality, even as the story threatens to spiral off into undisciplined absurdity. Luckily, the filmmakers never let this happen. They are also blessed with the genius of Mr. De Niro, who never makes a false move as the seemingly crazy ex-CIA agent who may or may not be harboring a few secrets of his own. Above all, De Niro never lets us bank on the extent of his character's eccentricity, which brilliantly enhances this `weekend from hell' scenario. For crazy and maddening as he can be at times, we can't help loving this character.

    Finally, unlike in many other romantic dramas and comedies, the relationship between the young couple in this film is both believable and touching. Greg and Pam are so likable - and the odds against them seem so staggering - that we find ourselves rooting them on from first moment to last. Their moments together are genuinely touching at times, particularly in the film's closing stretches.

    Kudos go out to everyone involved for making `Meet the Parents' one of the slyest, wittiest and flat-out funniest movies to come our way in a long, long time.
    7rooprect

    If you hate cats Robert De Niro will kick your butt

    I know I'm late to the party, but probably so are you if you're reading reviews at this late date. "Meet the Parents" is a funny flick that hearkens back to the glorious late-80s, or maybe even earlier, when comedies weren't so preoccupied with shocking the audience with gross out gags or surprise twists. Most of this movie is wonderfully predictable, and aside from a few deliberately clumsy drug references and maybe a sexual innuendo or two, it was good clean fun from start to finish.

    Most of all, I'd say it's a good date flick to prepare yourself for the inevitable agony of meeting your own boyfriend/girlfriend's parents. We all know it sucks. (If you don't think so, oh, just you wait. Sometimes it takes years for them to expose themselves as the hideous flesh eating monsters that they are.) De Niro manages to take us to the utter extreme of monster but without shattering our suspension of disbelief. This is a key point. If the situation were to become too absurd , we would lose focus on the story and instead hone in on the individual gags. While there are plenty of funny gags to go round, they are really just dressing on an already funny premise: the story of an underdog who just cannot fit in to a judgmental bourgeois family no matter how hard (and usually because of how hard) he tries.

    Ben Stiller shows his acting diversity (while on a different movie set playing the terminally airheaded Zoolander) as a dorky protagonist whose best intentions are always poorly timed or received completely the wrong way.

    The antagonists, in this case, everybody else in the movie, tread the fine line of comedy and irritation. That is, at any time you could find yourself laughing or hating them. What's masterfully done is the filmmaker's (and of course actors') ability to turn you on a dime, take you to the edge of wanting to kill someone but then having a hearty laugh at their antics. Like I said earlier, Robert De Niro is the anchor that makes this possible, and any casting short of him (well, or maybe Christopher Walken) would have resulted in the film falling apart due to the demands it puts on our willingness to accept a complete jerk like the character he plays. Really his only redeeming quality is that he likes cats. But that's the point, I guess. No matter how rude a person may seem, there's always something redeeming in there.

    Well, maybe except for the hilariously loathsome airline attendant who appears in a short but pivotal role at the film's climax. To me, that scene was worth the price of admission.

    Don't think twice, this is a movie worth seeing. Other similar films focusing on severely dysfunctional families trying to act normally include De Niro & Billy Crystal in "Analyze This", a great Andy Garcia movie called "City Island" and--this may be a stretch but--I think fans of "Meet the Parents" would really enjoy the original British "Death at a Funeral" (2007). Ya just gotta love comedies about trying to be normal in an utterly abnormal situation.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Robert De Niro wanted "Mr. Jinx" to appear in more scenes than he was supposed to because De Niro liked the cat so much. Apparently, De Niro would also play with the cat between filming scenes.
    • Goofs
      When Greg is at the drug store counter he asks if they have any nicotine patches. He is told that they don't but that they do have the gum. When the store associate takes the gum off the shelf, it is next to boxes of Nicorette patches.
    • Quotes

      Dina Byrnes: I had no idea you could milk a cat!

      Greg Focker: Oh yeah, you can milk anything with nipples.

      Jack Byrnes: [He reacts] I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me?

    • Crazy credits
      During the opening logos, the singers in the theme music are lyrically commenting "Look at the light coming out of the earth" during the Universal logo, and "Look at the boy sitting on the moon" during the Dreamworks logo.
    • Alternate versions
      In the version that airs on Freeform, the scene near the end in which Greg gets into an argument with the airline stewardess and his subsequent interrogation by an airline official removes all references to the fact that Greg mentioned the word "bomb" on the airplane.
    • Connections
      Edited into Meet the Parents: Deleted Scenes (2001)
    • Soundtracks
      A Fool in Love
      Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman

      Opening Title Performed by Randy Newman

      End Title Duet Performed by Randy Newman and Susanna Hoffs and Produced by Mitchell Froom

      Randy Newman appears courtesy of DreamWorks Records

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 6, 2000 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Facebook
      • Tribeca Productions
    • Languages
      • English
      • Thai
      • Spanish
      • Hebrew
      • French
    • Also known as
      • La familia de mi novia
    • Filming locations
      • Chicago, Illinois, USA
    • Production companies
      • Universal Pictures
      • Dreamworks Pictures
      • Nancy Tenenbaum Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $55,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $166,244,045
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $28,623,300
      • Oct 8, 2000
    • Gross worldwide
      • $330,444,045
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 48 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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