Son in Law (1993)

Pretty high school valedictorian Carla Gugino (as Rebecca Warner) leaves her wealthy small-town family for a college in Southern California. Living in the fast lane agrees with Ms. Gugino. She hooks up with RA ("Resident Adviser") dorm slacker Pauly Shore (as "Crawl"). They become so inseparable Gugino invites Mr. Shore to spend Thanksgiving break on her farm. The family is shocked by Mr. Shore's appearance and behavior. They want Shore and Gugino to break up, but the prospective "Son-in-Law" has other plans...The co-stars' courtship is strange, with Shore and Gugino seeming more like platonic pals. Shore calls Gugino "fresh meat" and jokes about arousal when spying a beautifully-proportioned woman at the beach, so we assume he's straight. Gugino has no trouble kissing Tom Cruise-type ex-boyfriend Dan Gauthier (as Travis). A final scene reveals the depth of their relationship. There is enough herein to partly amuse an adolescent audience, with young Patrick Renna (as Zack) looking juvenile chic in his "Seduce Me, Please" tee-shirt.*** Son-in-Law (7/2/93) Steve Rash ~ Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Patrick Renna

When it comes to Son in Law, it's a mixed bag. Its premise is cute, but its delivery is a little strange. It's a comedy with Pauly Shore, so you're not going to get very clever humor. You're going to get below the belt jokes a lot of the time which is perfectly acceptable. As long as you know what you're getting into, you have no right to complain about the jokes.Now do the jokes work? Most of them do, but most don't come from the lead actor/actress. The most jokes come from the girl's brother played by Patrick Renna, famous from The Sandlot. Such a weird little thing to say that the character in the movie who isn't on the cover or mentioned anywhere on the back is the funniest character in the film. And, at the time, he was only known for his role in The Sandlot and I doubt many kids who took the time to see that film did the same for this one.The film is about a farm girl named Rebecca Warner (Guigino) leaving her South Dakota farm to go to College in California. Her parents, mainly her father (Smith), are skeptical about this College and worry that is may tamper with her original roots. She meets Crawl (Shore) who is the residential adviser of her dorm. Crawl is an off the wall kind of friend, and Rebecca thinks it's brilliant to bring him home to her strict family.In California, Crawl fits right in. In South Dakota, Crawl is a fish out of water. The rest of the movie is compiled of Crawl's misadventures to try to impress the family of Rebecca. One scene includes him of stealing one of the families machines and taking it for a joy ride throughout their field with John Denver's Thank God I'm a Country Boy playing in the background. I'm not proud to say it, but that scene was hilarious.There is also a strange, not very well put together love subplot with Rebecca and her boyfriend. There is nothing to even show that Rebecca even loves or cares about her boyfriend. Most of the movie is her blowing him off on various occasions. Also, we are lead to believe that Rebecca is in love with Crawl. Honestly, that isn't too believable because there is nothing about Crawl's appearance or personality that could make him attract a girl like Rebecca. We are constantly told she is a smart and potential-filled girl who wants to be a journalist, but somehow, she falls for someone with no hopes, dreams, other than getting through to the next day.Son in Law doesn't have the humor or chemistry Bio-Dome or Encino Man did, but it's better than Jury Duty and a little better than In the Army Now. The one satisfying aspect of this is you can see Link (Fraser), the caveman from Encino Man (done two years prior to this), in a cameo role. That and the fact this is Shore's "Weasel" personality at full force. That can be a pro or a con. I, for one, had no problem with it.Starring: Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Cindy Pickett, Tiffani Thiessen, Dan Gauthier, Patrick Renna, Dennis Burkley, and Brendan Fraser. Directed by: Steve Rash.

It amazes me that anyone would not find Pauly Shore entertaining: but then, some people live in a city that supports a pedophile mayor. That person has his little "Oregon" jerk vocabulary and a basic stock of unwashed hippie clothes. Mainly, he is just obnoxious.That said, I watched this movie because I was up and there was literally nothing else on but infomercials, otherwise I would have watched Matlock or Murder She Wrote. Anyway, the film was more than OK because Pauly the Wheez was awesome and didn't just played it as a comic actor instead of, well, Pauly.Anyway, I'm sure Pauly fans will like it anyway - but if you are not a Pauly fan, stay away from this crock of manure.I had to leave this comment after seeing that another user actually gave this film a 3/10! (Maybe it was Pauly!!) Personally, I gave it a 10/10 because this movie is awesome.

This was such a funny movie, which was soon forgotten about, probably because there are so many teen and young adult comedies, such as this. The movie is not quit as predictable as one would think. Crawl is an unattractive, but fun and caring and most importantly a very devoted friend. Still, an unlikely match for Rebecca, who has an attractive and seemingly kind boyfriend back home. When he helps feel more at ease at school, by showing her around the neighborhood and encouraging her to socialize more, they become buddies, but it is completely platonic. When she realizes her boyfriend might propose, she does not feel ready, he seems to like her boyfriend, but she seems to be enjoying her free laid back party life at college is not yet ready to live a life of marriage and responsibility. You kind of learn what a good friend Crawl is when he tells her he will help get her out of getting married. When her boyfriend proposes to her, in front of the whole family, she kicks Crawl and puts him on the spot. He tells the whole family that he proposes to her, and gives her his diamond ring, which it tunrs out was his the whole time (he must have come from money or something. Well they never really show a close up of the ring). The message of the movie seemed to be not to judge people by their looks and not to judge people before you get to know him. Rebecca's boyfriend, who her parents love, turned mean when we find out he druged his new girlfriend after Rebecca,(Amber Thesan) and Crawl, so that Rebecca would have broken up with Crawl, thinking they were a couple. Although they were not, Rebecca was mad at him, which when you think about it, was kind of unfair, since they were not a couple, but I think they were starting to like one another. And I think she thought there was more. The movie never showed them actually become a couple, they left it open for the viewers to decide. They never even actually kissed at any point, although there was one part where they almost did. That was one thing most viewers seemed to misunderstand. Many people saw it and said, that he would be a nightmare for fathers to see their daughters bring home or a shock, but they were just friends the whole time, even towards the end. And she did not introduce him as her boyfriend; still they never told her parents they were not engaged. Rebecca almost did. Even if he would never become her boyfriend, they could have still been friends. In the 90s for some reason femanin men were in, and there was this big stereo type that woman liked femanin men (not that there is anything wrong with that), think it came from the fact that women like the kind sensitive type, which Crawl proved to be, through his friendship with Rebecca. but when I saw the movie, I must admit, if I went for looks, I thought I would have gone for the first boyfriend. Still it was a creative movie, that tried to teach a lesson on friendship and judging others.