Meet the Parents: Critic Reviews

When the script puts its faith in the audience, allowing us to find the laughs on our own, the film is irresistible, a bright lark. Yet when the writers panic, upping the antic volume and shifting into crazed sitcom gear, the lark stops.

Alas, poor Focker. He can't help himself. And we can't help ourselves from falling about, equally helpless, at this superbly antic movie.

A hilarious hodgepodge of The In-Laws and Annie Hall, in which De Niro gives his best comic performance to date.

Star-driven comedy at times offensive and funny.

...large swaths of the proceedings feel as though they'd be more at home within a garden-variety sitcom.

What gives the film its special kick is the match of Stiller and De Niro.

Nobody plays put-upon quite like Ben Stiller.

Packed with cringe-worthy moments from beginning to end, Jay Roach's comedy is for anyone who has ever endured a weekend in the company of potential in-laws.

Owes about 55 percent of its charm to De Niro, who can be hilarious just sitting there.

Director Jay Roach of the Austin Powers films keeps the pace brisk, and the script by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg ably piles the pratfalls ludicrously high.

Stiller portrays a human accident better than anyone and he definitely knows how to extort laughs and sympathy from his audience

Contains enough belly-laughs and sly jokes to become one of the bigger crowd-pleasers of the fall.

Astutely observed, subtly played and consistently hilarious...

Never before have two such skilled actors been so monstrously squandered in a movie so replete with failed gags and pathetic gaffes.

An entertaining little outing, but not something that will stay with me.

The best American comedy of 2000. It has wit, slapstick and romance -- as well as an improbable comedy team in Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller

Does the usual Hollywood bit of setting up the gags way in advance so that even a coma patient can spot them.

As far as one-joke movies go, this one has its guffaws.

Guaranteed to put you off suggested Sunday outings for life.

This film is almost too real to be funny. It is one uncomfortable moment after another - and that is what Stiller does best, but director Roach would have done well to tone it down a bit.

Stiller has a gift for looking funny effortlessly, when he's doing nothing physical. With no mugging, no physical contortions, he turns his face into a palette of pain and confusion.

What saves the movie from remaining an exercise in self-parody for all involved is director Roach's feel for the material.

This is, unquestionably, the best comedy currently on release. Highly recommended.

Great filmmaking this is not, but if you're looking for an amusing, undemanding couple of hours, give this a try.

Overbearingly cruel and only modestly funny.