Son in Law movie review & film summary (1993)
The family farm in South Dakota is not one of those modern high-tech farms, I guess. They still have chickens and cows and roosters and pigs running around - all of which make terrific props for the usual barnyard jokes, and deposit convenient piles of manure for use when needed. Meanwhile, we meet the family, who are really pretty nice folks. Lane Smith, with an uncanny similarity to Dan Rather, is a dad whose patience is quickly tried by the very peculiar Crawl. Mom (Cindy Pickett) is cute and supportive, although often uncertain what she is supporting. The kid brother (Patrick Renna) is the most refreshing of the lot.
But it doesn't much matter, because they're all upstaged by Crawl, played by Pauly Shore as one of the more tiresome movie characters of recent months. The mechanism of the screenplay requires him to gradually win over the family, one at a time, through such tried and true tactics as helping the kid with his video games, Mom with her makeup and Dad with the farm chores. Meanwhile, there is an contrived subplot involving Rebecca's spurned boyfriend, who plays a dirty trick on Crawl, besmirching his reputation, etc.
This story was never going to be great moviemaking, but it might have been more palatable if Shore had been able to make Crawl even marginally likable. His nickname is explained at one point in the movie, a wise decision, since my guess was that it referred to what he made your skin do. Since we don't like him and can't stand him, why should we hope that he'll prevail? He's one of those narcissistic cool guys who speaks in a monotone and thinks it is funny to insult people, and who is even more curdling when he tries to be nice to them.
The movie has a couple of laughs, mostly thanks to the kid brother. Its warmhearted scenes fail badly, because we do not for a second believe that Rebecca ever loved her first boyfriend, or even could love Crawl. The movie might have had a chance if it had abandoned all the false sentiment and simply acknowledged Crawl as the cretin he is. John Belushi would have known how to play this part.
