Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)

Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot is a comedy directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Turner And Hooch) and starring Sylvester Stallone (Rocky), Estelle Getty (TV sitcom The Golden Girls), and JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist). Stallone plays Joey Bomowski, L.A. cop who gets a surprise visit from his mother Tutti, played by Getty. She's in town to clean up Joey's house, clean up his crumbling love life with his boss Gwen, played by Williams, and clean up the city as she partners up with her son to catch some bad guys who were involved in a crime that she is the only witness to. Joey, on the other hand, must deal with his mother showing everybody she meets his baby pictures, washing his gun with water and soap, and feeding him breakfast (the most important meal of the day!) The movie is silly but mildly entertaining. Getty and Stallone's on screen chemistry is the worst since Dolly Parton and Stallone's duet performance in Rhinestone.There's really not much to say about "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot". It follows a recurring gag: the mother embarrassing her son, whether he's at home or on the job. Estelle Gelly sure is an old-fashion mother, very unrealistically so. She baked cookies, tucked her son to bed and sang a lullaby, made a huge breakfast for her son to eat, and even telling stories that he wet the bed (on a speakerphone), even in front of a suicide jumper next to Sly at one point; I know mothers often pamper their children, but normal mothers know when their child grows up. I understand it's a joke, but I don't really understand her at times: she seems very smart when she's helping Sly find some bad guys, but often she's very clueless like when she randomly bought an illegal weapon for her son; idiot savant or wise senility? I know the late great Golden Girl can be funnier than what she was in this movie, and the outrageous zany music didn't acclimate a dumb gag. It's a typical 90's screwball buddy-cop flick with an unusual partner, the unusual one being a senior citizen. The relationship between Sly and his mother had a few heartfelt moments, sappy as they are, which made me felt attached to them a bit. This is a generic flick, but it's a generic flick that plays fair.Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

Diverting but meatless comedy about a cop (Sylvester Stallone) whose mother (Estelle Getty) comes to visit him and interferes in his life, both personally and professionally. It's not very funny and you'll likely yawn more than once, but it's all harmless enough. I like Sly so I'll watch pretty much anything of his at least once. Estelle Getty was, of course, awesome on Golden Girls. Her character here has a lot less bite than on that show, though. She doesn't really bring much to the table besides the visual joke of the diminutive old lady doing things like holding a gun on a bad guy and making threats. But they go to the well a few times too often on that gag. It's really nothing special but worth a look if you're a Sly fan. He also says the title of the movie at one point, which made me laugh for some reason. It's worth noting the movie has tons of product placement, mostly for the kind of stuff they advertise during daytime game shows and soap operas.

When this was released, it got bad reviews. My favorites at the time were Roger Ebert and Dave Kehr. The latter wrote one of the funniest reviews I have ever seen when he gave this film "One star for being in focus." Stallone is a very talented writer and actor, though many of his films are not to my tastes, this being a prime example. Visiting Rome several years ago, this came on one evening and was strangely entrancing. I continued to watch and enjoyed it immensely, not understanding a word of Italian. So that worked for me, to watch as a silent film with wall-to-wall slapstick, vaudevillian comedy. It was a riot!

Contrary to popular belief, Sylvester Stallone can do comedy just fine. His acting performance in "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" isn't bad at all, he captures the right tone for the role and has pretty good chemistry with on-screen mother Estelle Getty. Only problem: it just doesn't make a damn bit of difference. This is one of the most poorly-scripted comedies I have ever seen, the best delivery in the world couldn't save this utter void of good material. All the humor is derived from the mother endlessly meddling, and by endlessly I mean the first half hour or so. After that they don't even go for jokes anymore and just have Stallone get into bloodless gunfights like you're watching a TV-edit to "Rambo". It's never quite clear if this movie wants to be a terrible comedy or a terrible police drama, they just keep betting on both horses. There's also a love subplot involved that's mainly there to pad out the running time, and credit where credit is due, it does. It's really boring and all, but that's of minor importance to the makers. It's sorta unfortunate Stallone gave up on comedies after this one, but it's also understandable.