Meet The Parents

Variety Todd McCarthy

A flat-out hilarious mainstream comedy.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This buoyant, giddy comedy of catastrophe is the funniest film of the year so far, possibly the most amusing mainstream live-action comedy since "There's Something About Mary."

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

De Niro and Stiller combine to bring on laughs you don't have to feel guilty about.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Many belly laughs.

Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark

It's funny. Really funny.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a bouncy, loose limbed, ''families do the darnedest things'' sitcom that elicits ungrudging laughs.

Slate David Edelstein

Has a soft windup, but along the way are some of the best-constructed slapstick sequences since "There's Something About Mary."

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

De Niro's performance works because it isn't exactly likable -- he's totally at ease with his own jokes, but he's not out to make us feel relaxed.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Roach knows to play to the movie's twin strengths: Stiller and De Niro. Throw these guys together, turn up the intensity.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A hilarious hodgepodge, in which De Niro gives his best comic performance to date.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

It's a kind of "sex, lies and videotape'' in suburbia.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Calling a comedy old-fashioned nowadays might seem like a backhanded compliment, but that's precisely what this genial, funny movie is.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Distress of Parents is a real pleasure.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Blithely funny and on-the-money movie.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

What makes it work so well is superb chemistry and a light touch. The spray-painted cat scene doesn't hurt, either.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

With near-Swiss precision, director/producer Jay Roach and his writers make sure familiarity breeds hilarity.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

These two actors have a kind of genius for dark comedy: Stiller for suffering through crises and De Niro for creating them.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Part sitcom, part comedy of manners - but it lacks the courage to deal honestly with class and ethnicity.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Stiller is enjoyably long-suffering, and De Niro convinces us that Attila the Hun would make a preferable father-in-law.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Directed by Jay Roach, who made the "Austin Powers" movies and here shows he can dial down from farce into a comedy of (bad) manners. His movie is funnier because it never tries too hard.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Scenes that should have been uproarious are weaker than many of the movie's smaller moments.

Film.com Sean Means

Delivers its humor with clockwork reliability.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

This is a high-concept comedy, and none of the jokes are forced, which makes Meet the Parents a singular achievement.

Film.com Robert Horton

While this movie is no great advance in cinema comedy, it is rewardingly silly.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

While Stiller and De Niro can play hilariously off one another, the film -- despite its happy ending -- feels unresolved.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It has just enough "comedy" to qualify as crowd-pleaser.

Newsweek David Ansen

Director Jay Roach ("Austin Powers") has a keen sense of comic timing, and the script keeps finding clever new ways to mortify our poor hero.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

A funny and sometimes substantial movie that in real life would never have a happy ending.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Ultimately passable movie entertainment, but like most future in-laws leaves a feeling of something still desired.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

What begins as unassumingly dull wanders into disarming chaos.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The gross-out factor is surprisingly low, and the combination of Stiller and De Niro is inspired.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Watching Ben get the girl or be seriously injured trying always has its dry, keening pleasures.

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

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