Streaming Tonight: An electric comedy with two stars at the top of their game

Paramount+ is currently home to one of the flagship comedies of the early 2000s, My Stepfather and Me (originally called Meet The Parents), driven by the opposition of Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.

Principled? Raging Bull Interpreter uses facial expressions and gangster movie attitudes against victim Ben Stiller and fails to cheer him up!

The story is universal: young Greg Focker wants to propose to his partner Pam, but she insists that he make a formal proposal to his father Jack, who must absolutely agree. Except that Jack, a paranoid and not-so-friendly ex-CIA agent, won’t be easy to convince…

Quiz: 8 questions for Ben Stiller fans!

My Stepfather is a remake

My Stepfather and Me is a remake of the 1992 independent comedy written and directed by Greg Glina. Eight years later, and even if Steven Spielberg and Jim Carrey were interested in the script in the meantime, out comes My Stepfather and Me, driven by Stiller. And De Niro recreated the mafia blues duo and directed by Jay Roach, who recently made two Austin Powers.

The recipe works wonders! The success of the feature film was such that it became the “Number 1 American Comedy”, as indicated on the French poster, and took 7th place at the US and international box office for the year with $330 million.

Two sequels, but one mourning

Two sequels were released, also available on Paramount+: My Stepfather, My Parents and Me (2004), which added Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to the cast as Ben’s parents, and My Stepfather and Us (2010), which gave Pam a larger role . The former, played by Ben Stiller’s longtime accomplice Owen Wilson.

The “My Stepfather” family was devastated when actress Nicole DeHough, who played Pam’s sister Deborah in the first film, died of pneumonia in 2005, aged just 30. This would explain why his character is regularly mentioned in the following films, but never shown.