Son in Law (1993)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Regardless of what you think of Pauly Shore, he always made me laugh in Son in Law. This film was always a feel good movie which I could watch over and over again, smiling every time. Nothing too deep, just mindless fun, which we all need sometimes. Carla Gugino also shows how likable she can be and she has an infectious laugh in this film which I've never heard her do in any of her other films. A fun comedy which will leave you smiling every time. Definitely recommend

At the start I thought that this movie was going to simply be a college flick, but instead it turned out to be a culture clash movie. The focus of this movie is the radical youth coming out to the traditional bible belt country of the United States and letting everybody know that he isn't all that bad anyway. Unfortunately in real life, such a thing will not happen, as the radical would be considered to be Satanist and turned into a social outcast.The movie is about Rebecca, a country girl who goes to Los Angeles to go to collage. On her first night she is ready to leave because everything is so different, but the Residential President of the college, Crawl, convinces her to hang around for a little while longer to see if she really hates it. In the end she changes and after three months, returns to the country with Crawl for Thanksgiving. This sets the scene for a huge culture clash, as Crawl's city ways clash with the traditional country ways.The focus of the movie comes when Rebecca's boyfriend decides he wants to get engaged, but Rebecca is having second thoughts. So Crawl suddenly says that he is going to marry her, which is of course a lie. So the now ex-boyfriend conspires to get back at Crawl and get Rebecca back. What we learn is that this guy isn't the perfect guy, and in fact is a two-timing, traitorous rat. This isn't overtly obvious, but there are a couple of times when the movie drops hints that he is dating Rebecca's best friend. The most obvious hint is when he dumps her after it seemed that she slept with Crawl in the barn.This is an enjoyable movie. Not something to write reams of commentary on, especially since it does not fully explore the cultural chasm between the city and the country. Rather it tries to show that the chasm is not really all that wide, and all the conservatives need to do is to accept the radicals. This is obviously written by the radicals because they show a spirit of tolerance for everything and it is the stuck up conservatives who need to change. My opinion is that we both need to work to accept each other (which is never going to happen). The radicals need to see that the conservatives like their traditional way of life, while the conservatives need to accept that the radicals wish to take a different road than they do. In the end though this is never going to happen.

This comedy will go down as a classic, just like Caddyshack, Meatball's and, UncleBuck to name a few. The first time I saw this movie I rented it. I thought well this looks like a winner and it was. Today it is hard to find a comedy that will make you laugh just like the one's from the 1970' and 1980's. It came out in 1993 and I can relate to this movie because that was the time I was in college too. It begin's with Becka going off to college, in California. Enven though her father Walter, played by Lane Smith, tries his best to change her mind and go to college in South Dakota. She goes to California where it's kinda a culture shock for her; and she hates it at first wanting to come home home. The RA played by Pauly Shore talks her out of it and she has made her 1st friend and saved herself from a mistake.The movie then gets close to Thanksgiving and the coming home to see her family and face the fact that her boyfriend from home might propose to her. She finds out that Crawl, Pauly Shore, will be staying on campus through the holiday. She kinda feels sorry for him; asks him to come home with her. She feels this is a way to get to know her family and also to get out of saying I do when she doesn't.When arriving home her family R shocked by her and Crawl. She's changed her appearance and feels relieved. The family freaks out by what she's done and at first can't stand Crawl, especially Walter. It takes awhile for the family to accept what she's done and it takes them longer to accept Crawl as a friend and supposedly a family member. When they go to dinner at a party of some kind her boyfriend tries to propose and Crawl gets in the way. He claims that he already asked her to marry him.Both he and Becka play along and as the movie goes along the Walter starts to warm up to Crawl, especially after the square dancing party. The next day Crawl goes fishing with Walter Sr. and Walter Jr., Lane Smith. They start to bond by talking about Walter's relationship with his father. The next thing they are talking when granddad appears to be having a heart attack. They, Crawl and Walter run to his aid. While Walter runs to get his father's pills, Crawl begins to attempt CPR on Walts dad thinking he needed it. When he begins to give him mouth-to mouth they both scare the s**t out of each other,"This was one of the funniest parts of the movie" When Walter asked his what happened, Crawl explains, he was trying to give his dad CPR, because he majored in it for a semester, he knew what he was doing. When they got home Crawl knew they both bonded and realized he needed to tell the truth but how.When Crawl goes th his bachelor party it gets worse. He gets drugged by the farm hand Theo and Becka's boyfriend. The next morning he wakes up in the barn with Beck's school chum. Beck'a finds them both and freaks, and tells her parents what happened. We come to fiend out this was a ploy for Becka's boyfriend to win he back and it eventually fails. The truth comes out in the end with an awesome ending.This movie is a great movie for the whole family. Pauly Shore and Lane Smith, winning pair. I believe this was one of Lane Smith's best movies and he is Hilario's too. Today he is missed but he will never be forgotten. The whole cast was great, but Lane Smith was tops, he kept me laughing to the end. This is a great comedy with a great ending you will not be disappointed :). Kris L. CocKayne :)

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.