{"id":7692,"date":"2024-10-30T23:15:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T03:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7692"},"modified":"2024-10-30T23:15:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T03:15:47","slug":"son-in-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/30\/son-in-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Son in Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Son in Law<\/strong> (1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (elements of sensuality, language, drug material, brief violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steve Rash\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fax Bahr, Adam Small and Shawn Schepps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Gibbs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Deming\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 1993 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Cindy Pickett, Mason Adams, Patrick Renna, Dennis Burkley, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Dan Gauthier.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $36.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I know it\u2019s not saying much, but Son in Law<\/strong> is definitely Pauly Shore\u2019s finest work. Granted, a lot of things look great when compared to In the Army Now, Jury Duty and Bio-Dome (which I personally like), but even so it\u2019s a pretty good fish out of water comedy. In it, Shore takes his act to a farm in South Dakota. Forget the farmer in the dell; try the farmer is a dude, buuuuddy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So what brings Shore\u2019s character Crawl to the Mount Rushmore State? I\u2019ll get to that in a minute. First, I need to explain about Rebecca (Gugino, Troop Beverly Hills), a fish out of water herself. A freshman at Cal State living in a co-ed dorm, it\u2019s the farm girl\u2019s first time away from home. Talk about getting an education, she learns that Southern California life is dramatically different from life in her small town. Feeling alone, she\u2019s about to hang it up when resident advisor Crawl offers to help. He helps her adjust to her new life with a complete makeover- i.e. hip clothes, haircut, blonde dye job and an ankle tat. Like her artwork, she\u2019s a butterfly newly emerged from her cocoon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Upon learning that her friend plans to stay on campus alone for Thanksgiving break, Rebecca invites Crawl to come home with her and celebrate Turkey Day with her family- dad Walter (Smith, Air America), mom Connie (Pickett, Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off), little brother Zack (Renna, The Sandlot) and grandfather Pappy (Adams, F\/X). Not only are they shocked by Rebecca\u2019s new look, they\u2019re horrified by Crawl and his unique mannerisms. He\u2019s not to going to fit in, but he\u2019ll sure give it a try. If you ever wanted to see Pauly Shore in a pair of chaps, this is your chance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Did I mention that Rebecca has a boyfriend back home? She does. His name is Travis (Gauthier, Teen Witch) and they\u2019ve been going together for several years. He plans to pop the question over Thanksgiving break and Rebecca is freaked out. She\u2019s not ready to get married yet. Looking to her friend for help after Travis proposes, Crawl announces that they\u2019re already engaged to each other. As you can imagine, the news goes over like a lead balloon. It\u2019s a ruse, of course, one that they plan to keep up until after they return to campus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to get into Walter\u2019s good graces, Crawl announces he\u2019d like to go into the family business. After all, how hard is it to be a farmer? Crawl is about to find out the hard way it involves a lot of hard work. It involves livestock, machinery and (naturally) manure. After all, what would a farm comedy be without manure? I\u2019d say a rerun of Green Acres. Did they have manure jokes on that show? I honestly don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Much of Son in Law<\/strong> centers on Crawl\u2019s efforts to endear himself to his \u201cfiancee\u2019s\u201d family. He bonds with Zack over their shared love of computer hacking. He helps Connie get her groove back with Walter. He even tries to save Pappy\u2019s life with CPR after he has a heart episode while fishing. I guess it worked. By the end, they\u2019re all talking like him- e.g. \u201cLet\u2019s chow down and munch on some grindage.\u201d (Walter at Thanksgiving dinner) In any event, I like this aspect of Son in Law<\/strong> very much.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love that Son in Law<\/strong> is so good-natured. Director Steve Rash (Can\u2019t Buy Me Love) avoids the temptation to be mean-spirited about the small town folk and their ways. When Crawl makes jokes about inbreeding, it doesn\u2019t sound cruel or condescending. Yes, Travis is a first-class jerk who plays a mean trick on Crawl with the help of rough farmhand Theo (Burkley, Mask). He\u2019s also cheating on Rebecca with her high school friend Tracy (Theissen, Saved by the Bell). He\u2019s a heel that will surely get his comeuppance by movie\u2019s end. Even with that, Son in Law<\/strong> is a nice feel-good movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like I already said, Son in Law<\/strong> is Shore\u2019s best movie. He does what he does best, he acts like Pauly Shore. This entails howling and hollering and acting silly a lot. On the ride home from the airport, he stands in the bed of the pickup loudly singing the Green Acres theme. He\u2019s also a genuinely nice guy who tries to make friends with everybody even through all the funny looks they give him. Crawl doesn\u2019t judge, that\u2019s a rare quality in any time. Gugino is HOT! She\u2019s also talented. She\u2019s convincing as a sweet na\u00efve girl trying to find herself after years of being sheltered. Renna is a hoot as the obnoxious little brother with a thing for \u201cnugs\u201d. Really, the whole cast does a fine job. I have no complaints in this area.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most importantly, Son in Law<\/strong> is funny, very funny. I\u2019ve seen it a few times including twice at the movies and I never get tired of it. It\u2019s one of those comedies that leave you in a good mood afterwards. It has so many good scenes, but my favorite is the square dance where Crawl grabs the mike and does his own thing. If you ever wanted to see an old cowboy musician do a stage dive, this is your chance. There\u2019s also a great cameo by a fellow Encino Man star.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Humor is relative, but I have a feeling you\u2019ll like Son in Law<\/strong> if you give it a chance. That is, unless you actively hate Shore and there\u2019s many that do. In that instance, I\u2019d advise you to stay far, far away.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Son in Law (1993)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (elements of sensuality, language, drug material, brief violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steve Rash\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Fax Bahr, Adam Small and Shawn Schepps\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Richard Gibbs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Deming\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 1993 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Smith, Cindy Pickett, Mason Adams, Patrick Renna, Dennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Son-in-Law-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7880,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions\/7880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}