Encino Man (1992) Hollywood/Comedy RT: 88 minutes Rated PG (mild language, sensuality) Director: Les Mayfield Screenplay: George Zaloom and Shawn Schepps Music: J. Peter Robinson Cinematography: Robert Brinkman Release date: May 22, 1992 (US) Cast: Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser, Pauly Shore, Megan Ward, Robin Tunney, Michael DeLuise, Rick Ducommun, Mariette Hartley, Richard Masur, Ellen Blain, Patrick Van Horn, Dalton James, Jonathan Quan, Jack Noseworthy, Christian Hoff, Rose McGowan, Michole Briana White, Erick Avari, Gerry Bednob, Sandra Hess, Culture Clash, Infectious Grooves. Box Office: $40.7M (US)
Rating: ***
Okay, you got me! I think Encino Man is a riot. It’s so gleefully mindless, I can’t help but watch it with a huge dumb smile plastered on my face. It stars Sean Astin (The Goonies) and MTV star Paulie Shore (in his movie debut) as a pair of Southern California teens who discover a caveman frozen in ice while digging a pool. It’s a silly idea that’s just right for a summer comedy aimed at the under-17 crowd.
Dave (Astin) and Stoney (Shore) aren’t exactly popular at their high school despite all of Dave’s efforts to attain popularity. This is why he’s digging a pool in his backyard. He figures throwing an epic after-prom party will make him and Stoney popular. He’s also nursing a crush on the prettiest girl in school Robyn (Ward, Trancers II) who’s going out with the biggest dick in school Matt (DeLuise, Wayne’s World). Matt is your typical jock bully who takes great delight in humiliating Dave at every turn.
ANYWAY, let’s get to the part about the frozen caveman (Fraser in his first major role). Dave and Stoney thaw him out only to discover he’s very much alive. They clean him up and name him Link (as in Missing). They make him look like a teenager and enroll him in school as an exchange student from Estonia. It doesn’t take Link long to become popular. Dave is thrilled while Stoney just wants to chill and be himself. He takes it upon himself to teach their new friend how to speak and “wheeze the juice” at the local convenience store. Learning to speak from Pauly Shore is like learning to drive from the Cannonball Run movies.
You can take the man out of the cave but you can’t take the caveman out of the man. Link doesn’t understand the ways of modern man. He climbs, grunts, eats frogs in biology class and makes wall drawings with condiments. He mistakes a garbage truck for a mammoth and tries to fight it. He does a lot of other goofy things which is to be expected from somebody who transfers from the Ice Age to 1992.
The point I’m driving at is that Encino Man is funny. Maybe I should qualify that remark. It’s funny if you shut off your brain for 88 minutes and take the movie on its own silly terms. Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Les Mayfield, it’s not exactly the pinnacle of artful filmmaking. Okay, it’s the complete opposite. Cinematically speaking, it’s not very well made. It looks like it was thrown together. The story and characters are underdeveloped. Take Dave’s parents played by Richard Masur (License to Drive) and Mariette Hartley (TV’s Peyton Place). They show up a few times early on before disappearing in the second half. They’re in Encino Man long enough to be convinced they agreed to allow a foreign exchange student to stay with them. Then there’s the matter of the pool. How does it go from being half done to fully operational in the space of such a short time? Once the boys unearth Link, we never see them working on it again yet it’s ready to go by prom night. Oh well, I suppose it’s pointless to be concerned with such matters in a movie like this.
When I went to see Encino Man, I didn’t know too much about Pauly Shore other than he had a show called Totally Pauly on MTV that was popular with kids and teens. I hate to say it, but I got a kick out of him in this movie. I like his funny way of talking. Yes, the novelty wore off by the time he made In the Army Now two years later, but it was still fresh in Encino Man. His character Stoney calls himself a “unique weasel” and lives only for “nugs, chillin’ and grindage”. Oh and wheezing juice, an activity that entails drinking Icee directly from the fountain. In the movie’s funniest scene, Stoney teaches this to Link much to the ire of store owners Raji (Avari) and Kashmir (Bednob)- “No wheezing the ju-ui-uice!” LOL! It still makes me crack up. Funny side story, I worked at a Wawa the summer Encino Man came out. I must have stopped at least a dozen teenagers from doing this at our Icee machine. I always told them to go do it at the 7-11 a few blocks down.
Why even bother commenting on the acting in Encino Man? Each actor turns in the kind of performance the material calls for. Some of the characterizations like the jock bully are broad, but what do you want from a dopey teen comedy? That being said, Fraser shows a real flair for comedy in his first major role. That’s really all there is to say on the subject. The only things that really count are its goofball sensibility, hot “Bettys” (Pauly-speak for babes) with nice “nugs” (Pauly-speak for you-know-whats) and its overall good-naturedness. I don’t even mind that it’s clearly aimed at the double-digit IQ demographic. Sometimes you need a movie like that. However, there’s a big difference between mindless and moronic. Encino Man is the former; anything Pauly Shore did after Son in Law is the latter. I’ll have to rewatch Bio-Dome to be sure though. In any event, I really dig Encino Man.
