Meet the Parents: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
→‎Cast: reformat
→‎Box office performance: expanding sentence, adding reference
Line 59: Line 59:
== Reception ==
== Reception ==
=== Box office performance ===
=== Box office performance ===
The film was a financial success, taking in [[United States dollar|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 film at the U.S. box office<ref>''Associated Press''. [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/29/box.office.ap.ap/index.html 'Blair Witch' sequel has disappointing box-office debut], ''[[CNN]]'', [[October 29]], [[2000]]. Accessed [[May 26]], [[2008]].</ref> and, by the close date of [[March 29]], [[2001]] the film grossed $166.2 million in the United States, and a total of $330.4 million worldwide,<ref name=mojo>[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=meettheparents.htm Meet the Parents (2000)], ''[[Box Office Mojo]]''. Accessed [[May 26]], [[2008]].</ref> making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year.<ref>[http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2000&p=.htm 2000 Yearly Box Office Results], ''[[Box Office Mojo]]''. Accessed [[May 30]], [[2008]].</ref>. It is also the highest grossing movie ever (U.S.) to be released in the month of October.
The film was a financial success, taking in [[United States dollar|USD$]] 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 film at the U.S. box office<ref>''Associated Press''. [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/29/box.office.ap.ap/index.html 'Blair Witch' sequel has disappointing box-office debut], ''[[CNN]]'', [[October 29]], [[2000]]. Accessed [[May 26]], [[2008]].</ref> 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,<ref name=mojo>[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=meettheparents.htm Meet the Parents (2000)], ''[[Box Office Mojo]]''. Accessed [[May 26]], [[2008]].</ref> making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year.<ref>[http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2000&p=.htm 2000 Yearly Box Office Results], ''[[Box Office Mojo]]''. Accessed [[May 30]], [[2008]].</ref>.
The film's opening weekend earnings were the highest ever for any film released in the month of October as well as the marking the highest opening weekend earnings for a Robert De Niro film.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/963333.stm De Niro's parental charms], ''[[BBC News]]'', [[October 9]], [[2000]]. Accessed [[October 9]], [[2008]].</ref>


=== Critical reception ===
=== Critical reception ===

Revision as of 13:59, 9 October 2008

Meet the Parents
International Poster
Directed byJay Roach
Written byGreg Glienna
Mary Ruth Clarke
James Herzfeld
John Hamburg
Produced byRobert De Niro
Jay Roach
Jane Rosenthal
Nancy Tenenbaum
StarringBen Stiller
Robert De Niro
Teri Polo
Blythe Danner
Owen Wilson
Music byRandy Newman
Distributed by- North America -
Universal Studios
- International -
DreamWorks
Release date
October 6 2000
Running time
108 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$55,000,000
Box office$330,444,045

Meet the Parents is a 2000 comedy film starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. Directed by Jay Roach of Austin Powers fame, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents.

The film is a remake of a 1992 independent film of the same name which has since been pulled from all distribution.[1] The original featured Greg Glienna who wrote, starred and directed the 76 minute film.[2][3]

The film's success inspired a 2004 sequel Meet the Fockers[4][5] as well as a reality television show entitled Meet My Folks in 2002.[6] In 2007, Universal Studios announced yet another sequel titled Little Fockers.[7][8].

Plot

Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a nurse intending to propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), a schoolteacher. His plans are disrupted by the news that Pam's sister Debbie (Nicole DeHuff) is getting married and Greg and Pam are invited to spend the weekend before the wedding at Pam's parents' house on Long Island. Hoping to make the best of the situation, Greg now plans to propose to Pam in front of her family and brings the engagement ring he bought for Pam with him.

On Long Island, Greg meets Pam's father Jack (Robert De Niro), mother Dina (Blythe Danner) and their beloved car Mr. Jinx. Jack takes an instant dislike towards Greg and, subtly at first but more openly as time goes by, criticizes Greg for his choice of career as a male nurse and anything else he sees as a difference between Greg and the Byrnes family. Greg desperately tries to impress Jack but his efforts fail one by one. Greg presents the family with a bottle of cheap champagne he purchased at a local drug store; while trying to open the bottle, the cork flies out of the bottle and hits the urn containing the ashes of Jack's beloved mother, breaking the urn and spilling the ashes on the ground, upsetting Jack even further.

File:Meettheparentsinter.jpg
Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) administers a lie detector test to Greg Focker (Ben Stiller)

Greg is now already intimidated by Jack. He becomes even more intimidated when Pam informs him that Jack is a retired CIA operative, not a florist as Pam had told Greg earlier. Adding to Greg's problems is the fact that the airline company had lost his bag in which he packed the engagement ring thereby putting on hold his plans to propose to Pam.

Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, Greg still feels as an outsider. Despite honest efforts to impress the family, Greg keeps doing things to make himself an easy target for ridicule and even anger. He slams a ball into Debbie's face during a game of water volleyball leaving her with a broken nose and a black eye just before her wedding; he uses a malfunctioning toilet that ends up overflowing the home's septic tank and results in a major cleanup the day of the wedding rehearsal; he accidentally snaps a cable wire which sets on fire a heavily lacquered wedding altar that was recently delivered to the Byrnes' home back yard. Later, Greg inadvertently lets Jinx out of the house and is unable to catch him again. As the terrified Byrnes family launches into a frenzied search, Greg, desperate to prove himself worthy to the family, finds a similar stray cat at a local animal shelter and spray paints its tail to make it look like Jinxie. Hailed as a hero, Greg quickly becomes the villain again when a neighbour of the Byrnes' calls with the news that Jinx wandered into the house next door and Jack discovers Greg's cover up scheme.

By now, the entire Byrnes family, including Pam, agrees that it's best for Greg to leave Long Island until the wedding is concluded. Unwillingly, Greg leaves and goes to the airport where he is detained by airport security for insisting that his bag, the same one previously lost by the airline company, stay with him rather than be checked. Back at the Byrnes household, Jack tries to convince Pam that Greg was lying to her about everything and, as proof, he explains that his friends at the CIA were unable to find any proof of any Greg Focker ever taking the MCAT which Greg claimed he had passed (with the initial intention of becoming a doctor). Upon learning that Greg's real first name is Gaylord and being presented with proof from Pam that he did in fact pass the test well, Jack realizes that Pam loves Greg and that she wants to marry him. Jack rushes to the airport, convinces the airport security to release Greg and bring him back to the Byrnes household to a grateful Pam.

As Greg is proposing to Pam, Jack and Dina listen in on their conversation from another room, agreeing that everything did, in fact, turn out in the best interest of their daughter and the only thing left to do is to meet Greg's parents.

Cast

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 film at the U.S. box office[9] 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,[10] making it the seventh highest grossing film of the year.[11]. The film's opening weekend earnings were the highest ever for any film released in the month of October as well as the marking the highest opening weekend earnings for a Robert De Niro film.[12]

Critical reception

The film was generally well received by critics, lauded for its deadpan humor[13] and subtlety[14] in a time when most Hollywood comedies were seen as cashing in on recognizable over-the-top "antics" of big-name comedy stars.[13] As of May 26, 2008, the aggregate review website Rotten Tomatoes registered 84% positive reviews based on reviews from 137 critics[15] while at the same time Metacritic, another aggregate review website, registered a rating of 73 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, [16] which is classified as Generally favorable reviews by the website's rating system.[17] Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four comparing the film to Roach's previous work on the Austin Powers film series and offering his opinion that "[Meet the Parents] is funnier because it never tries too hard".[14] Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly called the script "unforced" and concluded that the film "goes down like a flute of Champagne, leaving an aftertaste of giggles".[13]

However, the popular internet film critic James Berardinelli, in spite of awarding it two and a half stars out of four, gave the film a somewhat scathing review. On his website ReelViews.net, Berardinelli wrote that "Meet the Parents is put together like a TV sit-com", that Roach "strings together a series of hit-and-miss lowbrow gags with little care for whether any of the connecting material is coherent, interesting, or enjoyable (in most cases, it's none of those three)" and concluding that "even with Stiller and De Niro, Meet the Parents is an encounter that can be postponed until it's available on video."[18] Jeff Vice of the Deseret News, another detractor of the film, proclaimed Meet the Parents "only erratically funny" and accused Roach of taking "the cheap way out with a series of unfunny jokes".[19]

References

  1. ^ Chyn, Stina. Meet The Parents, Film Threat, June 7, 2005. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  2. ^ Ayscough, Suzan. Meet the Parents, Variety, August 13, 1992. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  3. ^ Wooten, Amy. Greg Glienna: Meet the Comic, Windy City Times, May 31, 2008. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  4. ^ Clinton, Paul. Review: Formulaic 'Fockers' fitfully funny. Sequel has moments, but a comedown from original, CNN, December 22, 2004. Accessed May 27, 2008.
  5. ^ Tyrangiel, Josh. High Drama, Low Comedy, CNN, December 6, 2004. Accessed May 27, 2008.
  6. ^ Gallo, Phil. Meet My Folks, Variety, July 21, 2002. Accessed May 27, 2008.
  7. ^ Michael Fleming, Diane Garrett. More 'Fockers' for Universal. Tribeca deal paves way for third movie, Variety, February 22, 2007. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  8. ^ Third Fockers Movie On The Horizon, Empire, February 23, 2007. Accessed May 28, 2008.
  9. ^ Associated Press. 'Blair Witch' sequel has disappointing box-office debut, CNN, October 29, 2000. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  10. ^ Meet the Parents (2000), Box Office Mojo. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  11. ^ 2000 Yearly Box Office Results, Box Office Mojo. Accessed May 30, 2008.
  12. ^ De Niro's parental charms, BBC News, October 9, 2000. Accessed October 9, 2008.
  13. ^ a b c Schwarzbaum, Lisa. Vetting Day Blues, Entertainment Weekly, October 6, 2000. Accessed May 30, 2008.
  14. ^ a b Ebert, Roger. Meet The Parents, Chicago Sun-Times, October 6, 2000. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  15. ^ Meet the Parents, Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  16. ^ Meet the Parents, Metacritic. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  17. ^ About Metascores. How We Calculate Our Scores: The Short Summary, Metacritic. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  18. ^ Berardinelli, James. Meet the Parents, Reel.Views.net. Accessed October 8, 2008.
  19. ^ Vice, Jeff. Meet the Parents, Deseret News, October 6, 2000. Accessed October 8, 2008.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Meet the Parents.

Template:MeetTheParents Template:Box Office Leaders USA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meet_the_Parents&oldid=244130693"