Meet the Parents (1992 film)
| Meet the Parents | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Greg Glienna |
| Produced by | Jim Vincent Emo Philips |
| Written by | Greg Glienna Mary Ruth Clarke |
| Starring | Greg Glienna Jacqueline Cahill Mary Ruth Clarke Emo Philips |
| Music by | Scott May |
| Cinematography | Bradley Sellers |
| Edited by | Dan Schalk |
|
Release dates
|
1992 |
|
Running time
|
76 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $100,000 (estimated) |
Meet the Parents is 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.
Filmed on a budget of approximately $100,000 and shot in and around Chicago,[1] Meet the Parents was not widely distributed and did not earn a large profit at the box office 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 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.[1] The 2000 version in turn inspired two movie sequels[2][3] and two television series.[4][5]
Contents
Plot
A clumsy but well-meaning young man named Greg (Greg Glienna) is on his way to visit his girlfriend Pam's (Jacqueline Cahill) parents for the first time. Stopping at a gas station on the way, he is warned by an attendant (Jim Vincent) of the catastrophic experience of his girlfriend's previous boyfriend when he first met her strict and overprotective father. Greg ignores the advice to turn around and go home.
Arriving at her parents' home, Greg immediately becomes a target of the girl's family's anger when he, among other mistakes, clogs the toilet and makes it overflow, destroys the dinner roast and the family's beloved Victrola, almost blinds his girlfriend's mother with a fishing rod, gets into bed with his girlfriend's sister, and accidentally drowns the family dog. When his girlfriend's father feels that his family has been brought to the very brink of destruction, he chases Greg out of the house with a shotgun.
Cast
- Greg Glienna — Greg
- Jacqueline Cahill — Pam
- Mary Ruth Clarke — Fay
- John Dacosse — Customer
- Dick Galloway — Irv
- Harry Hickstein — Lee
- Emo Philips — Video Store Clerk
- Jim Vincent — Gas Station Attendant
- Carol Whelan — Kay
Reception
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 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]
Meet the Parents (2000) and sequels
<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>
Producer Nancy Tenenbaum acquired the rights to the original film and then she 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] Sodebergh took on the project but then dropped it when he got involved with 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 with Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in the leading roles.[8][9][10] 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.[11]
The 2000 version in turn inspired two movie sequels, Meet the Fockers (2004)[2][12] and Little Fockers (2010),[3][13] as well as two NBC shows in 2002, each failing to get renewed: a reality television show entitled Meet My Folks[4] and a situation comedy entitled In-Laws.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Boys Who Met the Parents, Stumped. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Gallo, Phil. Meet My Folks, Variety, July 21, 2002. Retrieved May 27, 2008. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "GALLO" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lynette Rice and Dan Snierson. On the Air, Entertainment Weekly, August 9, 2002. Retrieved October 10, 2008. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "EW-NBC" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Adams, Sam. Meet the Parents, Philadelphia City Paper. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
- ↑ Shaffer, R.L. Meet the Parents: Bonus Edition (2000), dvdfuture.com. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
- ↑ Howe, Desson. A High Mirth Rate, The Washington Post, October 6, 2000. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Clinton, Paul. Review: Formulaic 'Fockers' fitfully funny. Sequel has moments, but a comedown from original, CNN, December 22, 2004. Accessed May 27, 2008.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
