Son-In-Law (1993)

Washington Post 0 of 10
Well, the movie's dumber than a coop full of chickens, but Pauly Shore makes a funny barnyard animal. In Son-in-Law, the L.A.-geared, Cal-speaking naif spends Thanksgiving with the pigs, the cows and a Midwest family, and transforms them all (the family, that is) into Pauly lovers... But for offscreen Pauly lovers familiar with his MTV show, Totally Pauly, or his debut movie, Encino Man, this is a good time. He hasn't hit his comedy peak yet, but he's getting better by the movie. In Encino, Shore introduced himself to movie audiences with his neo-hippy attire, laaaaid-back Paulyspeak and almost spineless gyrations. He paused --beyond pregnantly -- between syllables. He called food "grindage." Or "grine...dage." When anyone touched him, he wheeled his arms theatrically in the air with a Venice-Beach-wimpy "Aaaaaaaaaah!" He was getting there, he was almost funny. Son-in-Law puts him more forthrightly in the spotlight. And he gets even closer to there. As a California college student called Crawl, he prances through this formulaic comedy like a satyr-nerd, a Nike-age imp. And he's still fond of the word "grindage." Sometimes he's funny. Sometimes he falls flat on his face. But you like him for trying, unless of course you're too old and boring for such goofiness... What counts is Shore's misfit reaction to middle-American provincialism and farm life... You just watch him being Pauly, whether he's crooning karaoke in the local bar or running madly out of his dorm room, wearing fake leopardskin pajamas and black pilgrim hat, and screaming, "Steven Tyler PJs, Steven Tyler PJs!" - Desson Howe