L'apprenti fermier

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.

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.

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.

The annoying Pauly Shore befriends college freshman Carla Gugino in Los Angeles and then goes back to the country with her for Thanksgiving (he was invited because he had no one to spend the holiday with). Gugino's home-town boyfriend proposes marriage and she tries to discourage him by saying she is really engaged to Shore (a complete lie of course). Naturally the family is not crazy about Shore to begin with, but slowly they start to accept him and his strange California ways. Another one of those endless fish-out-of-water films that is more tedious than entertaining. Still probably the best Pauly Shore film yet (that is not saying much at all though). 2 stars out of 5.

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.