To say Pauly Shore just kind of happened is sort of
insulting to the man because he had worked for a bunch of years in stand up and
had his own show on MTV before launching into movies. But at the same time even if you had been
following him since his show, for which he got some national exposure, it still
must’ve been surprising to suddenly see him in Encino Man two years later.
And then from that sidekick role it also must’ve been pretty weird to see
him star in his very own vehicle just one year after that. This was before the internet we all know
today so to shoot that quickly to stardom basically the old fashioned way is a
little crazy.
And so we have Son in
Law, arguably Pauly Shore’s biggest break.
The story involves Midwesterner Rebecca (Carla Gugino (Snake Eyes, The Watchmen)) going off to
college in the totally wild and rambunctious state of California. Unfortunately she doesn’t adapt well and when
her favorite horse doll gets sat on and broken she decides to call it quits. Crawl (Pauly Shore) steps in to save the day
though and persuades Rebecca to stay. He
teaches her how to relax and be a free spirit and in return she invites him to
her family’s farm in South Dakota for Thanksgiving dinner.
*Side Note: Now you know why I’m talking about this one,
it’s a Thanksgiving movie. There are so
few movies that highlight this holiday which is kind of a shame. I’m glad it hasn’t been commercialized to
death like Christmas or, to a lesser extent, Halloween but I wouldn’t mind
seeing more pictures use Thanksgiving as a setting. It’s just a great unpretentious holiday. Anyway…
There are a couple of things that don’t add up from this
setup. First, this is a movie
college. The halls are overflowing with
people trying to get to their room or their class, there are naked people just
strolling around, there seems to be a party happening all the time in the
dorms, there are kegs of beer being drank openly in the dorms, every inch of
the rooms are decorated with all sorts of wacky crap and etc. This college never has and never will exist
in real life.
The next problem is the timeline. Rebecca wants to drop out on Halloween which
means she’s been there about two months.
Then Crawl intervenes and turns her whole life around by
Thanksgiving. That’s only about three
weeks. This girl completely changes her
attitude and look (including buying all new clothes, cutting and dying her hair
and getting a tattoo) in an extremely short period of time. It’s not impossible but it’s such a tough
sell considering how downhearted she was.
She’s not even remotely the same person and from the info we’re given
drugs aren’t a factor in this dramatic change.
Ok fine, so then they go to the farm and the fish out of
water story continues except Crawl is now the fish. He shocks these very reserved farmers with
his loud wardrobe, loud mouth and ADD behavior.
The guy has such a hard time focusing on any one thing and constantly
makes these annoying sounds. He’s a
child, an obnoxious, boisterous, but well intentioned child.
The title comes from Rebecca’s old boyfriend (who didn’t go
to college and stayed in South Dakota) wanting to propose to her but Rebecca
asks Crawl to do something about it.
Crawl’s solution is to announce that Rebecca is already engaged…to him
(Crawl). They decide to keep up the
front until the holiday is over and it’s time to go back to school. But I don’t see the point of adding this into
the plot. The fish out of water thing
along with the finding-your-true-self thing was enough really. The fake engagement does end up figuring into
the story, which I’ll give credit for, but they could’ve easily not had that
angle in there. Rebecca could find out
any number of ways that her old boyfriend is a cheating asshole and that she
can be true to both her Midwestern roots as well as her newly adopted Pauly
Shore/surfer dude lifestyle.
You might’ve noticed I didn’t mention that Rebecca
eventually realizes she loves Crawl.
It’s because that incredibly typical element to these types of pictures
doesn’t happen. Instead Rebecca and
Crawl continue to lie to their family about the engagement all the way through
to the end. There’s no kiss or
confirmation that the two main characters fell in love with each other. They only mildly hint at it throughout the
film. That’s such a risky move and one
that probably didn’t pay off with the audience.
I gotta admit it’s different though.
Before I wrap this up I want to point out how terrible the
boyfriend’s plot is to make Rebecca run back into his arms. First thing he does is drug the chick he’s
currently banging (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen (Saved
by the Bell)) and Crawl. Then he makes
it look like the two had sex by, uh, throwing a blanket over them with their
clothes still on? Whatever, then Rebecca
finds them and gets upset. This is such
a bullshit plan because, aside from the despicable act of drugging innocent
people, he didn’t stage the scene correctly and didn’t ensure that Rebecca
would catch them together. She
accidentally sees them in the barn so any number of people in the vicinity
could’ve made the initial find. And
finally this scumbag boyfriend character proposes to Rebecca literally minutes
after she finds Crawl with another woman. He had to have thought in his head “this is
the perfect moment to ask for her hand in marriage”. What a fucking psycho.
So how does Son in Law
stack up? As far as the comedy goes it’s
not funny pretty much at all. The weird
thing is that there aren’t a lot of actual jokes. The filmmakers relied almost completely on
Pauly Shore’s Weasel character to say things in a kooky way, dress outrageously
(which means like a late 60’s/early 70’s rocker guy, so not that crazy), get in
unusual situations (like stick this guy on a farm in the middle of nowhere) and
overall clash with every other person in the movie. It’s all a personality and not your typical
setup and payoff routine. In five
minutes you’ve seen everything this character has to offer so to hang with him
for ninety is a bit trying.
There’s also the classic
lead-gregarious-character-brings-others-around-him-out-of-their-shell arc. Crawl takes these stuffy, boring and
complacent Midwestern folks and makes them realize that they can be carefree,
fun loving and hip just like him. Like
Rebecca, her family turns their attitudes and values around practically overnight. It’s more unbelievable than when Rebecca went
through the same transformation. There’s
a strange side to this version of the trope though. The family picks up Crawl’s behavior but Crawl
doesn’t appear to pick up much of the family’s in return. I think the only thing he learns is that
farming is harder than he thought? But
even still he sucks at it on day one and then all of a sudden becomes good on
day two. So there isn’t much of a
struggle there. I dunno, another thing
the filmmakers oddly left out.
This isn’t the worst picture ever and Pauly Shore isn’t the
worst comedian ever either but I wouldn’t recommend it. Even as a 90’s relic it’s a tough one. Unless you’re really starving for a
Thanksgiving movie don’t bother.
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