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Editorial
Synopsis
Two features. In 'Meet The Parents' Greg Focker wants to propose to his girlfriend, but before he can do this he needs to get her father's permission. The only problem is, when her father sets his eyes on Greg he takes an instant dislike to him. In 'Meet The Fockers' the chaos continues when Greg introduces the conservative Byrnes family to his wholly unconventional parents...
A fun package for all.
Review date: 2008-01-20 Rating: 8 out of 10
These comedies rely on the juxtaposition and bringing together within close family circles of wildly differing points of view about how life should be led. Robert de Nero's character is the control-freak, tense, quiet, family man. He's an ex-CIA agent and he's never really going to like whoever his daughter (Teri Polo) decides to marry. She wants to marry Ben Stiller. The problem is that Stiller's father (Dustin Hoffman) is a laid-back house-husband and his mother (Barbra Streisand) is a sex-therapist for the over-60s.
As other reviewers have written, this set up allows for some genuine masterly comic situations that will have you screaming out loud with laughter on first viewing. But this kind of comedy relies largely on the factor of surprise: once seen, it is rarely so comedic thereafter. In addition, there are long stretches in these films where the laughter barely flows.
So, if you like your humour based on family situations that just go on and on, and round and round, then you'll find "Meet the Parents" and its sequel "Meet the Fokkers" of supreme enjoyment. But play them a second time, and see if you're still laughing. I don't want to be a downer here: believe me, I haven't laughed so much as when Ben Stiller's champagne bottle's cork popped out and knocked down the Ming vase on top of Robert de Nero's family mantlepiece and ... Hell, I ain't going to give the game away, but tears were rolling down my eyes!
Both of these DVDs come with heaps of extras, from mini-documentaries on how they got the cat to act the way he did, to director commentaries for both films. And there are plenty of deleted scene and blooper extras to boot. A fun package for all.