Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

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.

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."

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!

She is ...fabulous. And her chemistry with Stallone works in splendid way. A comedy in which the actors are more, more importants than the story. Not only because the plot is, in essence, a skinny sketch, but because each performance gives the great perspective about familiar aspects. A film about motherhood and a beautiful proof for the high skills of Sylvester Stallone for comedy. One of films who you adore. Scene by scene. Crazy, touching, seductive, lovely. And the fine occasion for Estelle Geetty to use her large experience in the roles of mother for a memorable comedy, having, fortunatelly, the ideal partner.

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.