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Meet the Parents is another film up Robert DeNiro’s comedy sleeve and was alot more successful for him than his previous comedy film ‘Analyse This’ alongside Billy Crystal. In Meet The Parents he shows some great timing and talent and has a lot of help from co-star and comedian, Ben Stiller (There’s something about Mary, Zoolander). Ben plays Greg Gaylord Focker, a male nurse in a traditionally female profession. About to propose to Pam (Teri Polo) his girlfriend he overhears Pam talking to her sister who has gotten recently engaged and he soon learns that to ask her hand in marriage he must do it the traditional way and ask her father's permission first. What follows is an outrageous weekend in the country at Pam’s parents house where Greg meets Pam’s father and ex-CIA agent Jack (DeNiro) for the first time and Greg manages to get himself into some harrowing and hilarious situations involving human ashes, septic tanks, pool volleyball and Jack’s most favoured possession, his beloved cat.

Both Stiller and DeNiro have shown they both possess amazing comedic ability and Meet The Parents is an undemanding, agreeable comedy and it was one of the biggest hits in Hollywood in 2000.

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VIDEO
This is the sell through version of the DVD having been released earlier as a rental version only. The Collectors Edition also appears to have used the same transfer. framed anamorphically at 1.78:1. I found the transfer on the whole to be very good, early on in the film the outdoor scenes are absolutely stunning with incredible detail, clarity and rich colours. The indoor scenes are not as vibrant as you would expect due to the lower level of lighting etc , however the artifacting, edge enhancement are kept to an absolute minimum and are virtually non-existent.

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AUDIO
The DVD is presented with four audio tracks being English Dolby Digital 5.1 , German Dolby Digital 5.1, and two English audio commentaries. The english Dolby Digital 5.1 is the track listened to throughout the feature. As you would expect from this type of film being a comedy, it is very front stage orientated meaning that the majority of the film is produced through the three main channels. Use of the subwoofer is limited as are the surround channels which have been used primarily for low level ambience. Dialogue was clear and easy to understand which is extremely important for a comedy, you can’t laugh if you can’t hear or understand what was said.

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EXTRAS
Apparently the amount of extras these days make the editions, can someone explain the difference to me with them. We have ‘Collectors Editions’, ‘Special Editions’ , ‘5 Star Editions’ ,‘Infinifilm Editions’ and so on. It seems every studio has it’s own terminology which is confusing, exactly what is the difference between them. Dreamworks have released ‘Meet the Parents’ as a ‘Collectors Edition’ but does that mean it has more stuff on it than a ‘Special Edition’ but not as much as an ‘Ultimate Edition’, or am I just confusing myself ? I think we need some standards here people. Anyway, on this DVD we have

• Audio commentary 1 (by the Director Jay Roach, Producer Jane Rosenthal with DeNiro & Stiller). This commentary was recorded with DeNiro & Rosenthal in one recording studio and Roach & Stiller in another linked by Satellite. Normally I love to listen to the actual actors talk about the film as opposed to Directors and especially producers as they tend to be at times…how can I say it boring. However on this occasion it is the opposite, I think DeNiro must have fallen off his chair, asleep or whatever but I hardly heard two words from him, maybe he exhausted of all his comedic talent upon making the film and had nothing to say.
• Audio Commentary 2 of Roach & Rosenthal together is a lot better, and they offer some great insight and information into the film. They appear to enjoy talking about it a lot more than DeNiro did at least.
• 24 minute behind the scenes featurette with interviews, excerpts and the standard fare which was also quite enjoyable.
• outtakes
• deleted scenes (albeit on two of them, but hey)
• theatrical trailers (16x9 enhanced) and a nice 5 page booklet.
  
  In comparing to the Region 1 version we miss out on a dts 5.1 soundtrack (who cares it’s a comedy, the difference would be neglible at best) , two games - Lie Detector Test and Forecaster , biographies , two other film trailers and DVD-ROM content. So they get the ‘Collectors Edition’ and we should then rename ours to the ‘Special Edition’ :)

Overall a great comedy with some pretty decent extras, definitely a rental at least or an enjoyable addition to your collection. Recommended.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T43W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Toshiba 2109 Region Free
Receiver: Yamaha RXV995 (DD/DTS)
Speakers:-
     Fronts: Polk Audio RT55
     Centre: Polk Audio CS350
     Rears: Polk Audio RT/fx 
     Sub: M&K MX125 

- Review Posted 16th November 2001

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