Meet the Parents (2000)

I have a soft spot for “Meet the Parents.” Why? The Robert De Niro character, Jack Burns, is a strange combination of many aspects of my father-in-law and father. (Many, not all.) When the film came out, I had just proposed to my now wife. Literally, a couple weeks before. My proposal had its own comic elements, most of my doing, but it didn’t play out like this. Burns is an old-fashioned, uptight former CIA spy with secrets who probably never didn’t vote Republican and guards his grown daughters with religious zealotry. Ben Stiller is the good-hearted male nurse who can't keep his trivia mouth shut, probably always votes Democrat and can’t help buy muck up everything he touches. Much like me. All the jokes center on the suitor’s name, Gaylord Focker, so the jokes come easy and play thisclose to juvenile-level crudeness. “Parents” also is a film of many “lasts” for me. It’s the last time I saw a decent film with De Niro’s name attached to it. It’s the last film I’ve seen headlined by Stiller where I didn’t want to throw something at the screen, screaming bloody murder. Good film. B+