Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)

A tough police sergeant's overbearing mother comes to visit him and begins to meddle in his life and career.

Director:

Roger Spottiswoode

Writers:

Blake Snyder, William Osborne

Stars:

Sylvester Stallone, Estelle Getty, JoBeth Williams

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sylvester Stallone	...	Joe Bomowski
Estelle Getty	...	Tutti
JoBeth Williams	...	Gwen Harper
Roger Rees	...	Parnell
Martin Ferrero	...	Paulie
Gailard Sartain	...	Munroe
John Wesley	...	Tony
Al Fann	...	Lou
Ella Joyce	...	McCabe
J. Kenneth Campbell	...	Ross
Nicholas Sadler	...	Suicide
Dennis Burkley	...	Mitchell
Ving Rhames	...	Mr. Stereo
Jana Arnold	...	Mitchell's Girl
Christopher Collins	...	Gang Member

Storyline

A tough police sergeant's mother 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 begins to further interfere with his job and love life, eventually helping him with a case he's on.

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Plot Keywords:

head dunked in a toilet | pinching cheek | mother | police | embarrassment | 

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Taglines:

Detective Joe Bomowski's mom is in town for a visit. She did the laundry, washed the windows and scrubbed the floors. Now, she's gonna clean up the streets.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Family | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for a scene of nudity

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 February 1992 (USA)

Also Known As:

Arrête, ou ma mère va tirer!

Filming Locations:

290 South Toluca Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,058,590, 23 February 1992

Gross USA:

$28,411,210

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$70,611,210

Company Credits

Production Co:

Northern Lights Entertainment, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Joe's living room there is a framed Leroy Neiman print. Neiman had painted at least two renditions of Stallone's Rocky Balboa.

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Goofs

When Joe is in the office with Gwen talking about his mother, there is a woman seen outside wearing a blue shirt. She keeps changing her position during Joe and Gwen's conversation. She looks into the office through the window with blinds holding a folder, then she is on the telephone, then she is back to looking through the window until Gwen signals her to move away.

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Quotes

Tutti Bomowski: And here we can see the beginnings of good equipment.

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Crazy Credits

Film title logo when end credits are done

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Alternate Versions

The original UK cinema version was cut by 6 secs by the BBFC to remove shots of a man's hand being crushed in a door and to edit the sounds of a man's scream and crash as he is thrown from a window. All video releases were uncut.

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Seth MacFarlane/Amber Heard/Leon Bridges (2015)

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Soundtracks

Undecided
Words by Sid Robin
Music by Charles Shavers
Performed by The Ames Brothers
Courtesy of MCA Records

User Reviews

Very funny

Los Angeles police detective Joe Bomowski isn't as tough as he looks. He's actually quite vulnerable, if you look at his romantic relationship with Lt. Gwen Harper. And his mother is coming from Newark for a visit. This time, she didn't answer the phone, figuring it would be Joe telling her why she couldn't come.

So when Joe arrives at the airport to pick her up, everyone is laughing at him. Even flight attendants. They've all seen the photos and heard the embarrassing stories. And on the way to his house, Joe has to help a man who is threatening to jump from a tall building. Don't worry--one of the classic moments in the history of comedy movies guarantees a happy outcome here.

And Joe's mom witnesses a murder. This is after she has cleaned his apartment, pleaded with him not to do anything dangerous, and done everything else possible to make him feel like a second-grader. But she won't let anyone work on the case except her son--which also means she has to be his partner! How is this possible? She's so tough she won't let anyone scare her with threats of arrest for providing false information to the police. And Joe's mom can do it all! Watch her drive the car in a chase scene. And the movie's title is a line spoken by her son to a suspect.

The amazing thing is that when he was 13, Joe was the strong one when his father died. So his mom knows what he is capable of. Her explanation of how he handled the situation gives the movie one of its several tender moments.

I shouldn't have listened when people said this film was bad. I would have seen it so much sooner. Estelle Getty was great, and while Sylvester Stallone didn't seem quite suited to this type of role, he was good enough. I liked the character. But, yes, he can do comedy. Remember "Oscar"? I remember I liked him in that.

I liked several other performances. Dennis Burkley as the big tough gun salesman (the one with the van), and Nicholas Sadler as the man on the ledge (I thought he was one of the Lawrence brothers!). And as always, Gailard Sartain as a big buffoon of a bad guy. And JoBeth Williams as Gwen. I can't forget her.

This is my kind of movie, and while it's obviously not Oscar material, it's quite entertaining.