"Meet the Parents" falls into the category of the "one damned thing after another" comedy.

You know the type. A hapless hero enters a situation with the best of intentions and becomes fate's whipping boy. Every attempt at a good deed adds to a mounting series of disasters. Examples run from Cary Grant in "Bringing up Baby" to Michael Douglas in "The Wonder Boys."

In "There's Something About Mary," Ben Stiller created a persona that begged for affection. Stiller was born to play the luckless hero of a comedy like "Meet the Parents," one where we laugh sadistically as his character never catches a break.

Stiller's character, born with the unfortunate name Greg Focker, is ready to propose to his girlfriend, Pam (Teri Polo), until he realizes he had better ask her father's permission first or risk a family scandal.

Her sister's wedding gives Greg the opportunity to meet Pam's parents. Greg expects to announce his intentions to her father during their weekend together.

And then Greg discovers Pam's father, Jack, is played by Robert De Niro at his most imposing.

Jack is a tightly wound nutcase. Though Pam says he is a retired florist, Jack acts more like a drill sergeant, despite an unnatural devotion to his Himalayan cat, Jinx. When Pam's sister says she doesn't want Jinx as her ringbearer, Jack shouts, "That cat has been like a brother to you!"

From the first handshake, Greg doesn't stand a chance. Not when Pam mentions he hates cats. Not when Jack learns Greg is not a doctor, but a nurse. And certainly not when every move he makes sabotages the wedding.

"Meet the Parents" is a remake of a low-budget 1992 comedy produced in Chicago. The Hollywood upgrade was written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and is directed by Jay Roach of "Austin Powers" fame.

Thankfully Roach keeps this script tighter than the Austin Powers movies, but "Meet the Parents" still peters out near the end, when it gets predictably soppy. The low-budget version, which I haven't seen, ran only 75 minutes. Roach could have used its brevity as a model.

Nevertheless, "Meet the Parents" delivers more laughs than any movie since "Battlefield Earth." Greg's misadventures escalate as he wonders what retired florist keeps a secret office filled with surveillance equipment. He ends up in a predicament no man would envy: strapped to a lie-detector by his girlfriend's father. Imagine the thousands of questions you wouldn't want to answer truthfully.

Considering his recent films have included "Wag the Dog," "Analyze This" and "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," De Niro is turning into quite the comedian. He doesn't act wacky to be funny ("Bullwinkle" and "Cape Fear" notwithstanding). As in "Analyze This," he gets laughs from being De Niro, just standing there with a threatening gaze.

Though Stiller played a similar role in "There's Something About Mary," his mensch act has a long way to go before growing stale. Stiller gives his characters subtleties that define their conscience and their comedy. Listen carefully for the words Greg mutters to himself. They're hilarious.

Focus naturally falls on De Niro and Stiller, but Roach also turns to a reliable group of supporting actors. Polo should have been a star years ago, but she picked some stinky scripts early in her career. Being the only good thing in "Mystery Date" doesn't look impressive on a résumé. Luckily Roach remembered her qualities and may have rescued her from obscurity.

Blythe Danner is sublime as Jack's oddly supportive wife, a role that mildly spoofs her character as Robert Duvall's long-suffering spouse in "The Great Santini." Owen Wilson ("Shanghai Noon") again threatens to walk away with someone else's movie. He's a stitch as Pam's very sensitive, very wealthy ex-fiancé.

The recent spate of gross-out comedies may influence "Meet the Parents," but Roach and the screenwriters never plunge into tastelessness for its own sake. This simple but well-constructed comedy picks a situation that naturally causes anxiety - meeting your in-laws - and turns it into a walk through hell.

It's the kind of thing that's funny as long as it happens to someone else. No one today plays that someone else as sympathetically as Stiller.