Meet the Parents (series)
| Meet the Parents | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Jay Roach (1 & 2) Paul Weitz (3) |
| Produced by |
Robert De Niro Jane Rosenthal Jay Roach |
| Starring |
Robert De Niro Ben Stiller Teri Polo Blythe Danner Owen Wilson Dustin Hoffman Barbra Streisand (More) |
| Music by |
Randy Newman (1 & 2) Stephen Trask (3) |
| Cinematography |
Peter James (1) John Schwartzman (2) Remi Adefarasin (3) |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by |
Universal Studios DreamWorks (1 & 2) Paramount Pictures (3) |
|
Release date
|
1: October 6, 2000 2: December 22, 2004 3: December 22, 2010 |
|
Running time
|
321 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Before the remake in 2000, there was the original film, a 1992 American independent comedy film written by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke. Glienna also directed and starred in the film as the male protagonist, Greg. The film is about a young man meeting his girlfriend's parents for the first time and the problems that arise when the girl's father takes a disliking to him.
Several years after the film's release, Universal Studios purchased the rights to the independent film. After hiring screenwriter Jim Herzfeld to expand the script, a new version of Meet the Parents was filmed and released in October 2000.
Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) is a nurse living in Chicago. He intends to propose to his girlfriend Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), but his plan is disrupted when he learns that Pam's sister's fiance had asked Pam's father for permission before proposing. Greg and Pam travel to Pam's parents' house to attend Pam's sister's wedding. Greg hopes to propose to Pam in front of her family after receiving her father's permission. But this plan is put on hold when the airline loses his luggage, including the engagement ring.
At the Byrnes' home, Greg meets Pam's father Jack (Robert De Niro), mother Dina (Blythe Danner) and their beloved cat Mr. Jinx. Jack takes an instant dislike to Greg and openly criticizes him for his choice of career as a male nurse and whatever else he sees as a difference between Greg and the Byrnes family. Greg tries to impress Jack, but his efforts fail. Greg becomes even more uncomfortable after he receives an impromptu lie detector test from Jack and later learns from Pam that her father is a retired CIA counterintelligence officer.
Meeting the rest of Pam's family and friends, Greg still feels like an outsider. Despite efforts to impress the family, Greg's inadvertent actions make him an easy target for ridicule and anger: He accidentally gives Pam's sister a black eye during a volleyball mishap; uses a malfunctioning toilet that floods the Byrnes' back yard with sewage; sets the wedding altar on fire and inadvertently leads Jack to think he is a marijuana user. Later, Greg loses Jinx and replaces him with a stray whose tail he spray paints to make him look like Mr. Jinx. Also after Greg spray-paints the cat's tail the cat is left alone in the house while the whole family are out and when the family arrive home they find that the cat has damaged and destroyed all the wedding possessions. It is then that the truth is revealed about the cat and everybody especially Jack is absolutely furious with Greg with the fact that he's almost ruined the whole wedding.
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Wikipedia