2) Meet the Parents
If Robert De Niro’s initial phase of acting lasted from Mean Streets to Cape Fear and his newest phase possibly having been ushered in by his work in Silver Linings Playbook, the peak of his second, comedy-focused period is surely the Meet the Parents franchise. His work in Analyze This was enough to convince studios that he could perform well in comedies, and for quite a while, this was his domain, to the point that current generations of movie audiences are surprised to find out that he was one of the most, if not the most, influential and celebrated dramatic actors of the previous 30 years. Teaming him with, or rather, pitting him against Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents was a further progression into a new generation of comedy.
The big surprise here was just how funny Robert De Niro can be. And it’s presumably a result of the seriousness with which he approaches dramatic roles spilling over into the straight approach he takes to comedic characters. So throwing together someone who can earnestly perform ridiculous tasks like De Niro’s character does with one of the most versatile comedic actors turned out to be rather inspired.
Stiller can be the ridiculous one, as demonstrated by Zoolander and Tropic Thunder, but he’s also established himself as a really good surrogate character who is faced with a series of awkward or absurd circumstances and is required simply to react in a relatable way to these sorts of events. So while the movie as a whole isn’t quite a masterpiece, it has enough moments between this pairing of performers to make it something of a modern classic.
