Everything about Meet The Parents totally explained
Meet the Parents is a
2000 comedy film starring
Robert De Niro and
Ben Stiller. The film was distributed by
Universal Studios and
DreamWorks SKG and directed by
Jay Roach of
Austin Powers fame. In
2004 its sequel
Meet the Fockers was released. Another sequel,
Little Fockers, has been announced.
The success of the movie also spawned a
reality television show entitled
Meet My Folks in 2002.
The film is a
remake of a 1992
independent film of the same name which has since been pulled from all distribution. The original featured
Greg Glienna who wrote, starred and directed the 76 minute film by the same name. The main character was named and modeled after himself.
Cast and crew
Plot
Greg Focker (
Ben Stiller) is a male
nurse who is intending to propose to his
girlfriend (
Pam Byrnes). But before he can even ask, he goes to visit Pam's parents' house on
Long Island for the weekend to attend Pam's sister's wedding. Little does Greg know, he'll have to endure a troublesome cat, Pam's ex-boyfriend, all of Pam's relatives, and her intrusive father, Jack Byrnes (
Robert De Niro), a retired
CIA operative who wonders if Greg is good enough for Pam. Greg struggles to impress Pam's family, but it seems everything he says or does is offensive to the Byrneses.
One of the first things Greg learns about Jack is his belief in a system called the "Circle of Trust". The idea of the system is that within Jack's circle of friends, there are no secrets. Throughout the films, this system proves to be flawed, since Jack doesn't trust some people in the circle (namely Greg), and some people in Jack's family are untrustworthy (like his teenage son Denny, who, unbeknownst to his dad, smokes
marijuana). Also, the circle permits Jack to invade other people's privacy.
Jack uses mind games, lie detector tests, and constant questions to push Greg over the edge. Greg will have to overcome Jack's
interrogations and tests to finally persuade Jack to allow him to marry his daughter. At one point towards the end, Jack says to his wife Dina, "Just gotta do one more thing. Meet his parents", thus paving the way for the sequel,
Meet the Fockers.
Reception
Box office performance
The film was a financial success, taking in
USD$ $28.6 million during its opening weekend and averaging $10,950 per theatre in a total of 2,614 theaters. It spent four weeks as the #1 movie at the U.S. box office and, by the close date of
March 29,
2001 the film grossed $166.2 million in the United States, and a total of $330.4 million worldwide.
Critical reception
The film was generally well received by critics. As of
May 26,
2008, the aggregate review website
Rotten Tomatoes registered 82% positive reviews based on reviews from 127 critics while at the same time
Metacritic, another aggregate review website, registered a rating of 73 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, which is classified as
Generally favorable reviews by the website's rating system. Film critic
Roger Ebert gave the film 3 stars out of 4 comparing the film to Roach's previous work on the
Austin Powers series and offering his opinion that "[Meetthe Parents] is funnier because it never tries too hard".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Meet The Parents'.
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