Mamma, ho trovato un fidanzato

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.

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.

Shore remains one of the mysteries of film history. Looking like what would result if Richard Simmons and Weird Al Yankovic had a child together, he is the unlikeliest of movie stars. Yet somehow, for a time at least, he managed to carve out a career for himself as a comic leading man. This film is often cited as one of his least annoying, but even here he is sometimes hard to take. He plays a way-out, overaged college student who winds up coming home for the Thanksgiving holiday with a pretty freshman from the country. Once there he offends, then predictably wins over, her family and friends......most of them anyway. The film is undeniably predictable and familiar and the material is very slight. Yet somehow, in spite of its hurdles, it manages to entertain to a certain point and actually contains a few laughs. Shore, as agonizing as he is, does occasionally score a thoughtful moment or two among all the slapstick and crude language. Gugino is lovely. Her presence adds immeasurably to the overall geniality of the film. The actors portraying her family do a very nice job as well. Smith as the father is suitably outraged by Shore. Pickett adds dimension to a pretty standard role. The best are Renna and Adams. Renna plays the obnoxious younger brother role to the hilt. It would be hard to come up with a brattier persona, but he puts a fun spin on it. Adams get a late career gem of a part as the cantankerous grandfather and steals many of the scenes he is in. To the director's credit, none of these characters get shorted in their opportunity to present themselves. (In other words, Shore isn't the ENTIRE show here. The supporting cast gets to shine as well.) Also present are hunky Gauthier as Gugino's former boyfriend (often looking like Tom Cruise in "All the Right Moves") and sexy Thiessen as the local easy mark. The movie is already dated in terms of its clothing and other aspects. Shore gives Pickett a makeover and it's hard to see why anyone thinks she looks better than before! Fortunately, the thing doesn't drag on for too long. It's just a short, sometimes funny, sometimes sweet, sometimes stupid movie that is blessed with a few enjoyable performers and a refreshing lack of undue sex and drugs.

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.

Son In Law didn't do so hot in the box office, but that only means the masses were wrong. This movie is one of the few movies that Pauly Shore really excels in, with some of the funniest lines I've ever heard. Although the ending is sub-par, the antics of Shore carries the movie.