Encino Man (1992)

This is a somewhat predictable Hollywood movie about two high school students. They start off as unpopular nerds and finish as popular. The ending is even mostly predictable at the beginning. Dave is digging a pool and his dream is that he get with his childhood sweetheart and have a huge party at his house after the prom. The problem with this is that he is unpopular and that the girl he likes is dating another guy, who is the toughest in the school. Things change when they uncover a cave man after an earthquake brings him up.This movie is about popularity and how people crave it. Dave is the focus and he is the one that wants the popularity, and he sees Link, the caveman, as his key. It comes to the point where this creates a wedge between him and Link. Link is popular, but he doesn't bring the popularity to him, and this is what he resents. He does grow though, and he comes to realise that popularity isn't everything, and it is not what he does, or who he knows, but who is his. Link simply does what he likes and generally doesn't care what others think.This is a fun movie, and the character of Link is actually quite deep in an unusual way. One wouldn't expect the character of a cave man to be deep, but he is. He is trapped in a strange world alone and this shows. Moreso, he doesn't go for any woman, even though they throw themselves at him. Rather he wants the woman he left behind and doesn't betray her memories by going after another woman.Stoney is the other main character and he is simply out to show Link a good time. Dave considers him irresponsible, but that is because Stoney's agenda does not line up with Dave's agenda. Stoney at first didn't want to help Link, but the more he got to know him, and showing him things, the more he began to appreciate things. Dave wants fame and money, Stoney simply doesn't care. He hangs around Dave because Dave really wants friends and will take anybody.I guess this is a good movie, and what it shows is that popularity isn't everything. Link was friends with everybody, and this is how he lasted. People are so clicky, especially Dave. He wanted to be in the in crowd, and rejected everybody else. Link didn't care and he befriended everybody, and as such he became popular. When Dave accepted this he found that he was already popular.It is interesting to see how Dave and the popular guy are very similar. Everybody knows this guy was a possessive jerk, and he lost the girl halfway through the movie, but we could see that Dave's self centeredness also made him a jerk. The thing is that Dave overcame this, while the popular guy was shown up to be what he really was like. Dave's highschool ended on a high, while the other guy crashed and burned.

Pauly Shore and Sean Astin star as a couple of nerdy geeks who find a frozen caveman (Brendan Fraser) in Astin's backyard while attempting to put in a swimming pool. After thawing him out, things REALLY heat up! Between school and time at the mall, Fraser gets a crash course in today's world.If you're a fan of Pauly Shore, then get "Son-In-Law." In my mind, the real star of this movie was Fraser, but, if you're interested in him as an actor, then you'd better be prepared to WATCH this film and not just listen to it, as Fraser's gags and gimmicks are all sight gags. But, because of him, the two dorks are worth putting up with (not like they were to the rest of their classmates in the film).I like Shore! I loved him in "Son-In-Law," but this side of him, to me, got a tired after the first five minutes of the film. I never was a big fan of Astin, but he's tolerable as the one who wants to use Fraser as the rungs in climbing the social ladder at school.7 out of 10 stars.

I have loved California Man for a long, long time. Pauly Shore has got to be the favourite, and with his own added 'unique weasel' it just makes the film for me. It seems this is where Brendan Fraser started his usual 'big, dumb, lovable' characters, but still he plays it to perfection. Sean Astin is quite cute in it, but doesn't add that much to the film. My favourite scene has to be when Stoney and Link go to the Mountain and 'beat up' a guy in a panda costume. Classic.Of course there's a corny ending but it wouldn't be a teenage feel good movie otherwise. Do yourself a favour - watch this movie and have a right good laugh.

While digging a pool in his backyard, Dave Morgan uncovers a stone-age artifact and realises that this is his way out of geekdom (the irony of that escaping him totally). However he is even more shocked to find a stone-age man frozen in a big block of ice. While trying to work out what to do with this discovery, the discovery defrosts and sets off around the locality – bewildered and confused. Dave and his friend Stoney catch him up and decide that the only way to keep him safe is to pass him off as a high-school exchange student – a plan that produces hilarious consequences! My plot summary is pretty accurate right up until the final two words because this uninspired teenage slacker comedy is nothing new, nothing special and nothing particularly funny. The film appears to have been created to try and ride the wave of such comedies that had been started by Bill & Ted and Wayne's World, however it forgets to reproduce the laughs of those films and just settles into easy scenarios, basic "fish out of water" gags and a narrative that is about as old as the prehistoric title character. In this regard it failed to engage me and never tried to be anything other than basic and it rewards viewers who are only happy with it working at this level but will likely just come off as rather tiresome to those that expect more. Laughs are rare and require you to be in the mood rather than doing the work to actually put you in the mood and the plot, like I said, goes exactly where you know it will after about 10 minutes.The cast cannot do anything to raise the material and they are just left mugging along. Fraser has the main role and perhaps the easiest – fooling around and looking silly; however he is as poor as the material although it is not his fault. Astin is dumped with the narrative to carry and he suffers with it. Shore marks out his future career path by managing to be unfunny and annoying with his character. The rest of the cast are the usual high-school clichés and none of them do anything at all of note.Overall this is a poor comedy but one that you might enjoy if you are target audience for this sort of basic fare. The jokes are simple, the plot is predictable and boring while the cast just try to do their best they can, which really isn't any good at all. Will appeal to some but to the majority it will be something that is forgotten in less time than it took to watch it.