Meet the Parents

Quite a pleasant relaxing film about the difficult acquaintance of a young man with the somewhat quirky family of his future wife. In fact, life can't be easy for an idiot like Gaylord Jebal... especially when he's facing a creature that is so demanding, i.e., his father, who is also a CIA agent. A couple of decent (though not dizzyingly intelligent) gags somewhat kill the typical heat of passion and "loving" pathos. And the decent comedian Stiller and the really large-format father Robert DeNiro are victorious over the typical heat of passion and pathos. No threat to the diaphragm, or to good taste... (09/12/2004)

The concept is potentially great, especially considering the actors, but after a few jokes about their former jobs, there are boring insertions about relatives and acquaintances. When the whole story turns into just "let's blame Focker for everything," I realized how much this attempt at comedy misses the mark. Unfortunately, a few lines about vacuum cleaners won't save it. (01/28/2006)

A feat that plunged De Niro into the sinister waters of comedic roles. Sometimes he did better, sometimes worse, but with a few exceptions he never got out of them. It's impossible to like the film much for that alone, but the second thing is equally obvious, Robert's character has huge potential and possibilities that are totally and reprehensibly untapped, and Stiller alone is not enough for great fun. It has a solid level of filmmaking and a few humorous scenes that are taken to total absurdity, but the little details are awkward rather than funny; you look at it, and sometimes you feel even more embarrassed than the protagonists. It’s alright for a Saturday afternoon, but not for prime-time. (10/11/2017)

When your daughter drags a weirdo into your house, you, as her loving daddy, will understandably go mad, but to spread such a conventional plot into a 100-minute-long farce with star actors and a pointless gimmick in the form of a former secret agent is a downright fail. We do laugh, Stiller is occasionally funny and De Niro is properly wacky, and their interactions have the necessary grace, but why so much fame and uproar? Even an average Czech filmmaker could produce something like this in similar quality and for much less money, not everything is so pure and perfect in Hollywood. (07/31/2013)