Son in Law (film)

Last updated
Son in Law
Soninlawcover.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steve Rash
Screenplay byFax Bahr
Adam Small
Shawn Schepps
Story byPatrick J. Clifton
Susan McMartin
Peter M. Lenkov
Produced by Peter M. Lenkov
Michael Rotenberg
Starring
Cinematography Peter Deming
Edited byDennis M. Hill
Jerry L. Roof
Music by Richard Gibbs
Production
company
Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date
  • July 2, 1993 (1993-07-02)(United States)
Running time
95 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8 million
Box office$36.4 million (US/Canada) [1]

Son in Law is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Steve Rash, written by Fax Bahr, Adam Small, and Shawn Schepps, and starring Pauly Shore, Lane Smith, and Carla Gugino.

Contents

The film received mixed reviews from critics, but has since become a cult classic.

Plot

18-year-old Rebecca “Becca" Warner (Carla Gugino), the valedictorian of her high school in a farm town in South Dakota, has been accepted to a college in Los Angeles. On her first day, she and her parents Walter (Lane Smith) and Connie (Cindy Pickett) meet Fred "Crawl" Weasel (Pauly Shore) resident advisor of Becca's coed dormitory. After they leave, the clash of cultures causes Becca to consider returning home, but Crawl convinces her to give the college a chance. She soon begins to acclimate, cutting and dyeing her hair, dressing in a Californian style, and even getting a tattoo of a butterfly on her ankle. When Becca sees Crawl has nowhere to go when school breaks, she invites him to South Dakota to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family.

When Becca and Crawl arrive in South Dakota, the Warners and Becca's boyfriend Travis (Dan Gauthier) are shocked by the changes in Becca. At dinner, Becca realizes that Travis wants to propose marriage to her and she urges Crawl to speak. Unable to come up with anything off the cuff, Crawl tells them that he has already proposed and she had accepted. This upsets Becca's family, who begin to disdain Crawl, and Travis, who punches Crawl in the face.

Now acting as a future son-in-law, Crawl expresses an interest in farming but bumbles his way through daily chores, to the amusement of Walter and his farmhand Theo (Dennis Burkley). However, Crawl begins to prove himself as an avid farmer, quickly learning how to perform each task he's given. He also begins to endear himself to the rest of the family. He impresses Becca's little brother Zack (Patrick Renna) with his computer skills, and Zack begins to see him as a big brother. He compliments Connie's appearance and helps to bring her out of her shell for Walter. When Walter's father has a heart attack, Crawl performs CPR and earns Walter's trust for aiding his father.

While shopping for clothes, Crawl meets Becca's friend Tracy (Tiffani Thiessen). Travis apologizes to Crawl for hitting him and invites him to a bachelor party, where Tracy dances for Crawl.

The next morning, Becca finds Crawl and Tracy waking up in the barn and furiously calls off the wedding, but Crawl and Tracy cannot remember what happened. Crawl leaves to head back to L.A. while Travis, who had been seeing Tracy on the side, berates her for behavior the previous night. Tracy finds her car seat suspiciously left all the way back and discovers a bottle of pills underneath it.

After picking up Crawl, who was attempting to hitchhike, Tracy visits the Warner house to confront Travis and Theo while the Warners are sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Theo confesses that they drugged them and that he set them up in the barn. Walter immediately fires Theo, but declines to report him to the authorities for his honesty. Becca stands up to Travis and Crawl knocks him down, revealing that he had majored in karate for two semesters.

After Travis and Theo leave, Tracy is invited to sit with the Warners while Walter asks his son-in-law to cut the turkey. Becca tries to speak the truth about Crawl's proposal, but he stops her, saying that they have not yet decided on a wedding date and need wait a while before making the decision, hinting that he intends to legitimately propose to Rebecca and have a proper relationship that the Warners will respect.

Cast

Brendan Fraser reprises his role of Linkovich "Link" Chomovsky from Encino Man in a cameo appearance.

Production

After Encino Man , Shore was considering a project with New Line Cinema, but was heavily pressured by Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg to stay with Disney and make Son in Law. [2]

Promotions

The promotional poster for the film is a parody of the painting American Gothic . The opening title sequence and graduation ceremony scene were filmed at Wasco High School in Wasco, California. [3]

To promote the film, MTV ran a contest to marry Pauly Shore in Las Vegas. The contest attracted 25,000 entrants and was won by Tanya Cinotti of Salisbury, Massachusetts, who also won four days in Vegas, food, time with Shore, a bumblebee ring and a yo-yo that lights up. Though, on July 2, 1993, there was a ceremony, no marriage certificates were signed. [4]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 32% of 22 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.1/10.The website's consensus reads: "While there may be some mild culture clash yucks to be had for those who enjoy Pauly Shore's shtick, this Son-In-Law is too obnoxious to be worthy of bringing home to your family." [5]

In the Los Angeles Times , reviewer Michael Wilmington suggested that the film "... tries to pretend that it’s about tolerance: a kind of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner about anti-L.A. freak bigotry". He also criticized the film's premise:

Son-in-Law suggests that somebody like Crawl would be as weird as a lunar being to the Midwestern Warners. That isn’t so. Because of TV and the movies, L.A. subcultures are the ones everyone knows about. ... In any town within reach of cable TV, the teen-agers would not only recognize a Pauly, there might be imitation Paulys at the high school. [6]

In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $36.4 million. [1] By the end of 1993, it had grossed $4.6 million internationally. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiffani Thiessen</span> American actress (born 1974)

Tiffani Amber Thiessen is an American actress. Her roles as Kelly Kapowski on NBC's Saved by the Bell (1989–1993) and its spin-off media, and as Valerie Malone on Fox's Beverly Hills, 90210 (1994–98) established her as a teen idol of the 1990s. As an adult, she has played Wilhemina 'Billie' Chambers in Fox's Fastlane (2002–2003), Natasha Drew in ABC's What About Brian (2007), Elizabeth Burke in USA Network's White Collar (2009–2014), and Lori Mendoza in Netflix's Alexa & Katie (2018–2020). For the latter, she earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauly Shore</span> American comedian and actor (born 1968)

Paul Montgomery "Pauly" Shore is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for his roles in 1990s comedy films. Shore began as a stand-up comedian at the age of 17, before becoming an MTV VJ in 1989. This led to a starring role in the comedy film Encino Man in 1992, which was a modest hit. He followed this with leading man vehicles, including Son in Law (1993) and Bio-Dome (1996). Shore provided the voice of Robert "Bobby" Zimuruski in A Goofy Movie and its direct-to-video sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carla Gugino</span> American actress (born 1971)

Carla Gugino is an American actress. After early roles in the films Troop Beverly Hills (1989), This Boy's Life (1993), Son in Law (film) (1993), and Snake Eyes (1998), Gugino received wider recognition for her starring roles in the Spy Kids trilogy (2001–2003), Sin City (2005), Night at the Museum (2006), American Gangster (2007), Righteous Kill (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Sally Jupiter in Watchmen (2009), Sucker Punch (2011), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), San Andreas (2015), Gerald's Game (2017), and Gunpowder Milkshake (2021).

Patrick Maxwell Renna is an American actor and film producer best known for his role as Hamilton "Ham" Porter in the 1993 baseball film The Sandlot. Some of his later projects include, Bad Roomies, his first film as a producer, a recurring role on Netflix's hit GLOW and the independent film Boys of Summer, which was released in 2022.

<i>Watchmen</i> (film) 2009 film by Zack Snyder

Watchmen is a 2009 American superhero film based on the 1986–1987 DC Comics limited series of the same name co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse, the film features Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson. A dark and dystopian deconstruction of the superhero genre, the film is set in an alternate history in the year 1985 at the height of the Cold War, as a group of mostly retired American superheroes investigate the murder of one of their own before uncovering an elaborate and deadly conspiracy, while their moral limitations are challenged by the complex nature of the circumstances.

<i>A Bucket of Blood</i> (1995 film) 1995 television film by Michael McDonald

A Bucket of Blood is a 1995 American comedy horror television film. A remake of the 1959 film of the same name, it follows the original closely, adapting it to a contemporary setting. The film was directed by comedian Michael McDonald, produced by Roger Corman, and co-written by McDonald and Brendan Broderick, based on the 1959 screenplay by Charles B. Griffith.

<i>This Boys Life</i> 1993 film by Michael Caton-Jones

This Boy's Life is a 1993 American biographical coming-of-age drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is based on the eponymous memoir by author Tobias Wolff. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Ellen Barkin. It marks the first time Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro ever collaborated. The film also features Chris Cooper, Carla Gugino, Eliza Dushku and Tobey Maguire's first credited appearance in a feature-length movie.

Californication is an American comedy-drama television series, created by Tom Kapinos that originally aired for seven seasons and 84 episodes on Showtime from August 13, 2007, to June 29, 2014. The show follows New Yorker Hank Moody, a troubled novelist who moves to California and suffers from writer's block. His drinking, womanizing, and drug abuse complicate his relationships with his longtime lover, Karen, and their daughter, Becca . The show's other main characters are Hank's best friend and agent Charlie Runkle and Charlie's wife Marcy. Recurring themes are sex, drugs, and rock and roll, all of which are featured regularly, as well as the seedier side of Los Angeles. The show won several awards, including two Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rya Kihlstedt</span> American actress

Rya Kihlstedt is an American actress. She starred in the 1997 comedy film Home Alone 3 as Alice Ribbons. Kihlstedt would go on to appear in the films Deep Impact (1998), Women in Trouble (2009) and The Atticus Institute (2015). On television, she had a recurring roles as Dr. Michelle Ross in the Showtime crime drama Dexter and as Marilyn Rhodes in the ABC musical drama Nashville. In 2015, Kihlstedt starred in the NBC miniseries Heroes Reborn.

<i>Women in Trouble</i> 2009 film by Sebastian Gutierrez

Women in Trouble is a 2009 American sex comedy film written, produced, and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez and starring Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Marley Shelton, Adrianne Palicki, Simon Baker, and Josh Brolin. It was shot in 10 days for $50,000.

<i>Sucker Punch</i> (2011 film) 2011 film

Sucker Punch is a 2011 American psychological fantasy action film directed by Zack Snyder and co-written by Snyder and Steve Shibuya. It is Snyder's first film based on an original concept. The film stars Emily Browning as "Babydoll", a young woman who is committed to a mental institution. As she collects items she needs to escape, she enters a series of fantasy worlds where she and her fellow inmates are strong, experienced warriors. Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, and Oscar Isaac also star.

<i>Opposite Day</i> (film) 2009 American film

Opposite Day is an American comedy film starring Billy Unger, Ariel Winter, Pauly Shore, and French Stewart, written by Max Botkin. It was released in October 2009.

<i>Girl Walks into a Bar</i> 2011 American film

Girl Walks into a Bar is a 2011 multiple story line ensemble comedy film produced exclusively for Internet distribution. It is directed by Sebastián Gutiérrez from his own script, much like the anthology style of Gutiérrez's Women in Trouble, and follows a group of apparent strangers in interlocking stories taking place in ten different bars during the course of one evening throughout Los Angeles.

<i>Sucker Punch</i> (soundtrack) 2011 soundtrack for the film of the same name

Sucker Punch: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the film of the same name. It was released on March 22, 2011 by WaterTower Music. The album consists of covered songs, mainly by the film's stars. Emily Browning sings on three songs, while Carla Gugino and Oscar Isaac perform a cover of Roxy Music's "Love Is the Drug" as a duet. Recording artists Björk, Skunk Anansie, Emilíana Torrini, Queen, Carla Azar, Alison Mosshart and Yoav also have songs on the soundtrack.

<i>Lavalantula</i> American 2015 science fiction horror thriller film

Lavalantula is an American 2015 science fiction comedy horror thriller television film that takes place after a series of volcanic eruptions in Los Angeles unleashes a swarm of gigantic, lava-breathing tarantulas from which the film draws its title. It was directed by Mike Mendez and stars Steve Guttenberg, Nia Peeples and Patrick Renna. Ian Ziering appears as Fin Shepard, tying the film into the Sharknado universe. It premiered on Syfy on July 25, 2015.

<i>The Haunting of Hill House</i> (TV series) American television series

The Haunting of Hill House is an American supernatural horror drama television miniseries created and directed by Mike Flanagan, produced by Amblin Television and Paramount Television, for Netflix, and serves as the first entry in The Haunting anthology series. It is loosely based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson. The plot alternates between two timelines, following five adult siblings whose paranormal experiences at Hill House continue to haunt them in the present day, and flashbacks depicting events leading up to the eventful night in 1992 when the family fled from the mansion. The ensemble cast features Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Victoria Pedretti as the siblings in adulthood, with Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas as parents Olivia and Hugh Crain, and Timothy Hutton appearing as an older version of Hugh.

Jett is an American action crime drama television series created by Sebastian Gutierrez. It stars Carla Gugino and premiered on June 14, 2019, on Cinemax. The drama ended with only 1 season and 9 episodes.

<i>Nobody</i> (2021 film) American action film by Ilya Naishuller

Nobody is a 2021 American action thriller film directed by Ilya Naishuller and written by Derek Kolstad. The film, which stars Bob Odenkirk, Connie Nielsen, Aleksey Serebryakov, RZA, and Christopher Lloyd, follows a mild-mannered family man who returns to his former life of an assassin after he and his family become the target of a vengeful crime lord. Odenkirk and David Leitch are among the film's producers.

Chiara Aurelia is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the films Gerald's Game (2017) and Back Roads (2018). She starred as Jeanette Turner in the Freeform teen drama Cruel Summer (2021).

<i>Lisa Frankenstein</i> 2024 film by Zelda Williams

Lisa Frankenstein is a 2024 American comedy horror film directed by Zelda Williams, in her feature-length directorial debut, and written by Diablo Cody. The film stars Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Henry Eikenberry, Joe Chrest, and Carla Gugino. The plot follows a misunderstood teenage goth girl who meets and develops a relationship with a reanimated Victorian-era corpse. Cody stated that Lisa Frankenstein is set in the same fictional universe as Jennifer's Body.

References

  1. 1 2 "Son-in-Law (1993)". Box Office Mojo. IMDB. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
  2. ↑ Wells, Jeffrey (20 September 1992). "A look inside Hollywood and the movies: TOTALLY TINSELTOWN: The War Over Pauly Shore's Next Movie or Why Hollywood Is Sooooo Much Fun". Los Angeles Times.
  3. ↑ HARDISTY, DIANNE. "Kern Life: WASCO: Pleasant valley city offers history, scenery". The Bakersfield Californian. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
  4. ↑ Meyers, Kate (30 July 1993). "Marrying Man". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 21 April 2009. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "Son in Law". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  6. ↑ MICHAEL WILMINGTON (July 2, 1993). "MOVIE REVIEW : A Silly Mix of Bad Ideas in 'Son-in-Law'". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ↑ Klady, Leonard (January 3, 1994). "Int'l top 100 earn $8 bil". Variety . p. 1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.