knyventura

Meet the Parents is a movie about a male nurse Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, who is meeting his girlfriend's parents before proposing to her. His girlfriend, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo,) has an over protective father Jack Byrnes, who is a former CIA agent (Robert De Niro.) From the moment that Jack and Greg meet, Jack feels that he is not good enough for his daughter. So when Jack discovers that Greg is a male nurse, he never lets him forget it by bringing it up in conversation every time that he can. Many hilarious parts of the movie come when Greg is caught in a situation where he has to lie or break the `circle of trust,' which happens quite often. Greg goes from breaking Debbie Byrnes' nose days before she was getting married to losing the dear family cat, Jinxies, to catching the house on fire as well as flooding the backyard with fluids from the septic tank, nearly ruining the wedding. But the funniest part of movie is when you discover that Greg's real name was Gaylord, which meant that his full name was Gaylord Focker. Greg's name was an effective form of a cheep laugh because it was somewhat vulgar but not overly done, and you could always get out at least a giggle when you heard De Niro yell out `Focker!' Even the music couldn't save Greg, when asked about the song `Puff the magic dragon', Greg explained to Jack about its drug meaning, literally `puffing a marijuana cigarette.' This gave the illusion that Greg was a pothead. But the audience sympathized with Greg when he was kicked out of Jack's house. Most of the things that Greg did wrong were because he loved Pam. He was just trying to gain Jack's approval so that he could marry Pam. Only after Greg left did Jack realize that Greg was the one for Pam. Thus the perfect ending happens when Greg is allowed to propose to Pam. Overall, I feel that De Niro was magnificent in portraying the overprotective father because he was quick to jump on the character of Greg at any instant and he gave the impression of the overpowering head of the family. This movie had an excellent supporting cast with Ben Stiller and Teri Polo. Stiller, who also starred in There's Something About Mary, kept up to his usual self, providing plenty of comedy. Director, Jay Roach, who also directed the Austin Powers movies, didn't try anything fancy to overwhelm us, but showed a more sophisticated comedy. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a masterpiece and 1 being not worthy for the space on the bottom of my garbage can, I give Meet the Parents a 7. The movie has a good cast, good directing and a good story line with plenty of laughs. The only problem is it isn't one of those movies that you see and you are like `wow,' and it changes the way you look certain aspects in life. Overall, it is one of the funniest, if not the funniest movie that I have ever seen.

Summer Catch is a romantic comedy about a local college baseball player (Freddy Prinze Jr.) playing in the Cape Cod baseball league, who falls in love with a rich girl, Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), who is home in cape cod for the summer and is going to leave to San Francisco to work for her rich uncle because her father told her to. The Cape Cod Baseball league is a league of the finest college baseball players who are bought together to play in a summer league using wooden bats. These players are usually close to making the Major League and getting paid. It is said that 1 out of 6 major league players has played in the Cape Cod league. Many scouts come to watch these games. Prinze plays the baseball player Ryan Dunne who is a Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde type pitcher. He always starts the game well but ultimately comes to the point where he loses his focus and blows it. Prinze is always seen as a failure to his father and his brother. They think that he will end up cutting grass for his father for the rest of his life. Jessica Biel, has rich parents and can have whatever she wants. She falls in love with Ryan Dunne and is caught between choosing her fathers wishes, moving to San Francisco and working for her uncle, or staying with Ryan whether he makes it to the big leagues or not. At first Ryan is not a hit with some of his teammates such as the Dodger Blue, Eric Van Leemer, who turned down a 2 million dollar contract. Eric acts kind of a character foil for Ryan. They are both off the wall pitchers, Eric has a glove that is different colors and has flames, while Ryan just blows up on the field but Ryan found his success in the end by working hard at it. Eric just always had the talent and never had to look deeper to find his pitching groove. But Ryan becomes good friends with his other teammates such as Billy "Bru" Brubaker, Miles Dalrymple and Mickey "Domo" Dominguez (Wilmer Valderama). The movie does have its funny moments such as the times that Ryan and Bru wear the thongs or how Domo's "baseball mother" loves the young cape cod baseball players and gives Domo his own private show which involves a cucumber (lets leave it at that). But baseball and love stories do not mix. The movies ending is horrible, just as the final baseball game gets to its climax, Ryan is 2 outs away from the baseball Mecca of achievements for a pitcher, a no-hitter, he leaves it for Tenley Parrish. I just feel that he should have at least pitched the no-hitter instead of taking himself out. In the end, Ryan Dunne did make the Major Leagues for the Philadelphia Phillies, and ironically, he still has the destruction point in the big leagues because he gives up a homer. After watching this movie, writers have found a way to turn the American pastime game of baseball into a chick flick.