Menudo yerno

Before I saw "Son In Law" I only had a vague idea who Pauly Shore was. Now I know. He is a superb comedic actor. In this movie he plays "Crawl", an upperclassman dorm counselor, who is a bit eccentric. He meets freshman "Becka" from South Dakota and they become fast friends. He helps her break out of her small town mold. In a Thanksgiving visit to her parents' home, he pretends to be her fiancee to save her embarassment of a sort with an old boyfriend.

I loved two things about this movie. Pauly Shore and the comedic situations are the first. The second is the message. How generations of "men" had perpetrated the same offenses against each other, and "Crawl" helps them see a better way to treat each other. He gets Becka's mom also to feel "alive" again, and rekindles romance between the parents.

The whole movie is a fresh approach to comedy, is a joy to watch. I rate it a strong 7 of 10.

People rag on Pauley Shore for being a bad actor. On the contrary, he wasn't an actor at all, but a swell entertainer. You could stick him in a dumb situation and he could just jump in, act naturally, and have a whole lot of fun doing lots of stupid things. That's what makes his movies so damned funny.

The story isn't anything new. A city boy is planted in a rural South Dakota farm town. He's an outcast at first (and likewise they're alien to him), but eventually they mesh and he rubs off a bit on them and vice versa. But, here, Pauley (as Crawl) follows his college friend to her home in the boonies for Thanksgiving break. Trying to avoid her boyfriend who just insists on getting married, she comes up with some story that they're actually engaged. Her parents are blown away by it because obviously they'd rather see her settle down with the townie than with the very strange Crawl. In the end, everything works out fine, obviously.

The actors are swell. I particularly enjoyed Patrick Renna as the once-obnoxious little brother with a rad sense of humor. And of course, Pauley Shore was good at what he does: making people laugh.

Thumbs up.

I didn't expect much when I decided to watch this movie, so I was surprised to find myself thoroughly enjoying it. A couple of scenes had me laughing almost uncontrollably. The characters were engaging (no pun intended); however, the story is predictable. The fun of it comes from watching Crawl (Shore's character), a ditzy-yet-wise California dude a country college girl brings home for Thanksgiving, trying in his awkward (yet endearing) way to fit in to their lifestyle. I was also surprised that in all this there was a message. If you have a chance, see this movie!

Along with In the Army!, this ranks as one of Pauly Shore's best movies, if there is such a thing. While the whole West Coast-meets- Midwest-culture-clash isn't anything new, this film proves to make the story a little more entertaining with the wild and unpredictable antics of a then fresh Shore. While the change in values probably would have gone in the other direction, the whole concept was rather entertaining. Not only was Shore's interaction with the family hilarious, it also had Carla Gugino and Tiffani- Amber Theissen (she'll always have the Amber in my book) in two ravishing and early roles. One of those films I have no problem watching when it is on TV.

Despite myself, I really kinda like this movie. Pauley Shore is invariably laugh-out-loud funny, and here is no exception. He is just excellent at playing the weirdo with a heart of gold.

His performance in this, although nothing out of the ordinary for him, is so good, it seems to lift other cast members' performances. Perhaps this is because he's the kind of guy it's easy to bounce off of.

The clichés about country life in this movie are hilarious and the way Shore's "city boy", Crawl is so at odds with the way of life, is funny too, but it's not only he who's a fish out of water; comedy also comes from the fact, that to any "ordinary" person or people, Crawl is a freakish nightmare of a person. That's why this movie works in such a great way: we love Crawl, he's a breath of fresh air, but we can also sympathise with the Warners. He is one hell of a culture shock.

Although this movie is classic Pauley Shore, so there's no great brain power needed to enjoy the movie, enjoy it you do, and there's even a "never judge a book by it's cover" type moral here somewhere. Not bad, not bad at all.