Meet the Parents (1992 film)

Meet the Parents
VHS cover
Directed byGreg Glienna
Written by
  • Greg Glienna
  • Mary Ruth Clarke
Produced by
Starring
  • Greg Glienna
  • Jacqueline Cahill
  • Mary Ruth Clarke
  • Emo Philips
CinematographyBradley Sellers
Edited by
  • Greg Glienna
  • James Vincent
Music byScott May
Production
company
Post Production - VPA Teleproductions - Editor - Jack Liga
Release date
  • 1992 (1992)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS $100,000 (estimated)

Meet the Parents is a 1992 American independent comedy film written by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke. Glienna also directed the film; wrote the original songs "Keep Smiling" (performed by Walter Tabayoyong) and "When Philip's There" (performed by Clarke); and starred as protagonist Greg: a young man meeting his fiancée's parents for the first time who sets off a series of accidents and causes the family to fall apart.

Filmed on an approximately $100,000 budget and shot in and around Chicago in 1991,[1] Meet the Parents was not widely distributed and did not earn a large box office profit upon its limited release. It did, however, garner some critical acclaim and film industry attention towards remaking the film on a bigger budget.

Several years after its release, Universal Pictures purchased the rights to the independent film and hired screenwriter Jim Herzfeld to expand the script. A new version of Meet the Parents was filmed and released in October 2000.[1] The 2000 version in turn inspired two movie sequels[2][3] and two television series.[4][5]

Plot[edit]

A man and his fiancée driving out to meet her parents stop to get gas at a gas station. The man mentions his plans to the owner, who advises him against it, then begins the tale of Greg: an advertising agent who went to meet his fiancée Pam's parents, Irv and Kay Burns, for a weekend that ended disastrously.

Despite his efforts to impress the Burnses, Greg sets off a number of mishaps. He breaks Irv's Victrola, overflows the toilet, ruins Kay's roast, rents a film starring Andy Griffith as a rapist and chainsaw killer, nearly stabs Kay’s eye with a fishing pole, gets framed for marijuana planted in his luggage, collides with a hit-and-run driver while in the family's car, drowns their dog Bingo after throwing a stick into a lake, and earns the wrath of Pam's ex-boyfriend Lee. Throughout the visit, Pam's sister Fay, an aspiring singer and the true marijuana user, insists Greg hear her Star Search audition since she mistakenly thinks he has ties with Ed McMahon, who appeared in a commercial Greg wrote. On the second night, Greg, who has been told to sleep on the living room couch, enters Fay's bedroom in searching for Pam's.

Near the end of the visit, Greg's car breaks down. He plans to flee the house with Pam, who urges him to stay one more night. He then unintentionally causes a portrait of Irv's late mother Penny to fall on an urn containing her ashes. With no reputation left to lose, Greg listens to Fay sing a ballad entitled "When Philip's There". She begs him for suggestions, and he reluctantly gives slight criticism, leaving her furious. Fay then tells her family Greg entered her room the previous night but claims he wanted to cheat on Pam with her. Pam locks herself in her room, and Irv orders Greg to leave. As Greg opens the front door, he and Pam's parents hear her scream from upstairs. Irv discovers Fay has hanged herself with a sign reading "Greg killed me" around her neck, rushes downstairs, and fires his gun as Kay attempts to intervene.

When asked if Irv killed Greg, the gas station owner explains that Irv accidentally killed Kay and Pam, then died of a heart attack, while Greg turned out fine. The customer leaves, now uneasy about meeting his fiancée's parents. Another customer arrives on his way to take his children to a circus, and the owner advises him against it, beginning a new story.

Cast[edit]

  • John Da Cosse as First Customer
  • Karen Ann Gronowski as Fiancée
  • James Vincent as Gas Station Owner
  • Greg Glienna as Greg
  • Jacqueline Cahill as Pamela "Pam" Burns
  • Dick Galloway as Irv Burns
  • Carol Whelan as Kay Burns
  • Mary Ruth Clarke as Fay Burns
  • Emo Philips as Video Store Employee
  • Domenic Sfreddo as Hit & Run Driver
  • Harry Hickstein as Lee
  • Mike Toomey as Priest
  • Marc Vann as Second Customer

Reception[edit]

Film critic Suzan Ayscough reviewed the film for Variety magazine in 1992. In her review, she called the film a "wonderfully twisted black comedy" even though she believed it to be "excessive and occasionally overdone". Ayscough predicted that the film "could garner a cult following among anti-establishment urbanites" due to its "blatant attack on marriage, suburban indifference, Christian hypocrisy and the nuclear family" and unsuitability for mainstream audiences. Opining that the "script desperately needed an objective eye", she concluded by calling the film an "amusing vehicle which aptly displays the multiple talents of Greg Glienna".[6]

Film producer Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards, listed the original Meet the Parents on his personal Top Ten list of favorite films. In the article, he called it "much funnier and tighter than the Hollywood version".[7]

Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum liked the film and was tempted to call it, "the ultimate worst-case-scenario comedy". He said it "may not always make you laugh but will impress you with the singularity of Glienna’s dark approach". He also added that the audience was "still likely to be taken by the purity and relentlessness of this picture's vision".[8]

Remake[edit]

Main articles: Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, and Little Fockers

Producer Nancy Tenenbaum acquired the rights to the original film and sent a copy to several people of interest, hoping to have a new version of the film made. Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh replied that he was interested and that he wanted to direct a remake. He brought it to the attention of Universal Studios, who initially declined but subsequently optioned the rights to the film in 1995.[1] Soderbergh took on the project but dropped it to focus on directing Out of Sight.[1]

In 1995, Universal Studios purchased the rights to the film.[1] The screenplay was expanded by screenwriter Jim Herzfeld, and film director Jay Roach was hired to direct the 2000 version of Meet the Parents. Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro were cast in the leading roles.[9][10][11] Distributed by Universal Studios domestically and by United International Pictures internationally, the remade film was a big financial success earning $166.2 million in the United States and a total of $330.4 million worldwide.[12]

The 2000 version in turn inspired two movie sequels, Meet the Fockers (2004)[2][13] and Little Fockers (2010).[3][14]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e The Boys Who Met the Parents Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, Stumped. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Meet The Fockers". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  3. ^ a b "Little Fockers". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  4. ^ Gallo, Phil. Meet My Folks, Variety, July 21, 2002. Retrieved May 27, 2008.
  5. ^ Lynette Rice and Dan Snierson. On the Air, Entertainment Weekly, August 9, 2002. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
  6. ^ Ayscough, Suzan (August 13, 1992). "Meet the Parents". Variety. raindance.co.uk. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  7. ^ Grove, Elliot. "Elliot's Top Ten". Raindance Film Festival. raindance.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  8. ^ "Meet the Parents | Jonathan Rosenbaum". www.jonathanrosenbaum.net. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  9. ^ Adams, Sam. Meet the Parents Archived 2010-10-23 at the Wayback Machine, Philadelphia City Paper. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  10. ^ Shaffer, R.L. Meet the Parents: Bonus Edition (2000), dvdfuture.com. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  11. ^ Howe, Desson. A High Mirth Rate, The Washington Post, October 6, 2000. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  12. ^ "Meet the Parents (2000)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  13. ^ Clinton, Paul. Review: Formulaic 'Fockers' fitfully funny. Sequel has moments, but a comedown from original, CNN, December 22, 2004. Accessed May 27, 2008.
  14. ^ "Little Fockers (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-12-31.

External links[edit]

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