Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

This movie is fun to watch with the kids. Stallone CAN do comedy - we liked OSCAR, too. If you've never had an Italian "mama" you might miss some of the humor!

Every living person on earth should see this movie. Not because its good and worth watching, but because it is so awful. The reason why everyone should watch this movie is so that you have a measuring stick for judging just how bad a movie is. For example, your buddy says "Man that Jim Carey movie 'The Majestic,' was the worst movie ever made!" And you can be like, "No man, have you ever seen 'Stop or My Mom Will Shoot? I mean don't get me wrong 'The Majestic' sucked, but its no 'Stop or my Mom Will Shoot.'" Then your friend will be like "Oh yeah man, your right. I totally forgot about 'Stop or My Mom Will Shoot!' I guess I had blocked out that painful memory." Also you can be telling your friend like "Hey, 'The Core' sucked." They can be like "No surprise there. How bad did it suck?" You can be like "I'd say its about one 'Majestic' above 'Stop or my Mom Will Shoot!'" Your friend, "Man, thats pretty bad."

Sylvester Stallone is an iconic action star and Estelle Getty was a hilarious, sarcastic and witty Golden Girl. Put the two together and you'll get yourself one charming action-comedy, where tough Los Angeles cop Sgt. Joe Bomowski (Stallone) gets a visit from his nurturing, feisty and fearless mother Tutti (Getty), who beings to meddle in Joe's life affairs, interfering with his police work and love life.

There are some very oddball and corny humor with some campy dialog in the movie, at mostly the expense of Stallone and Getty. The supporting actors were given the back burner and the villains were forgettable. And yet, while the plot goes at a very steady-pace with limited action, I've found the comedic chemistry between Stallone and Getty, which make up most of the movie, to be pretty entertaining and fun to watch and is, at times, heartwarming. Getty's obsessive behavior to be very baby-nurturing to Stallone as he responds in his frustrated way is itself classic. And, it's not everyday you see a petite, motherly, 68 year-old lady brandish a gun and deal with gangsters!

While not an action flick that would blow you out of your seats, you will get several laughs out of this movie.

Grade B-

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to the movie he considers the worst of his career. 1992's Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Plot In A Paragraph: A tough police sergeant (Stallone) has his life turned upside down, when his mother (Estelle Getty) comes to visit him, and promptly starts trying to fix up his life, much to his embarrassment. For his birthday she buys him a machine gun out of the back of a van, and ends up being the prime witness in a drive by shooting.

Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were competing against each other at that time this was made, and Arnold faked interest in this movie in order to make Sylvester go for it. Stallone who heard that Arnold was interested in headlining in this movie, fell for it and immediately dropped everything and contacted the producers, saying that he wanted to headline. He deeply regrets this.

For this reviewer, it is the lowest point of his post 'Rocky' career so far. As with 'Oscar' Stallone is clearly trying hard, and Getty brings the fun she brought to TV's 'Golden Girls' but it misses on so many levels. It is not without its moments, and anyone with an over bearing mother can certainly relate, but I actually struggled to make it to the end, despite a short running time.

IMDb averaging 4/10? No way! This is great fun. Sly is a tough but fair cop living a bachelor lifestyle whose minuscule mother comes to stay with him. In no time she's trying to 'improve' him with motherly advice, improve his diet and get him back together with his lady love. It never dips into sentimentality or become too serious, and is a quality, well-paced production in general.

Happening to catch this on TV recently, I'd long forgotten that Sly can not only act when he wants to, but has excellent comic timing. (He really should have not spent so much time trying to be an action hero, but explored his dramatic and comic abilities). There are some really good moments, such as when his mom squares up to a sly villain threatening her son and comes out with a catchphrase of Sly's real-life rival Arnie Schwartzenegger.

The only criticism I'd give is that toward the end a slightly laborious car chase is thrown in, but thankfully the comedy returns as his interfering mom steps in again. Good entertainment, and it really, really deserves at least a couple of stars more on the IMDb rating.