¡Alto! o mi madre dispara

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.

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-

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."

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.

Alright, I recognize that this movie is not good and has several problems. However, it was the product of a time when nonsensical parodies were in vogue. I remember that the "Police Academy" franchise was one of the successes of that years, having continued to have acceptance on TV throughout the 90s. It is a familiar and educated comedy that tries to have fun without slang or dirty jokes, that has been more popular with young people nowadays. Despite the film's problems and flaws, which are undeniable, perhaps the way we look at humor and what makes us laugh also helped to bury this film in the oblivion.

The screenplay is based on Joe, a tough, independent detective's complicated relationship with his elderly mother, Tutti, who came to visit despite his unwillingness to do so, and who intrudes heavily on her son's personal and love life, subjecting him to deeply embarrassing situations, such as showing everyone photographs of his childhood and picaresque stories that he preferred to keep to himself. The film shows us how that mother is truly in love with her son, and she stubbornly resists acknowledging that she no longer has to take care of him like she used to. It also reveals how, deep down, he likes his mother, caring about her and accepting her help when he sees that she is right in what she says. For many people, the movie is pure nonsense, but the truth is that I know many mothers like that, for whom their children never grow up, and who like to have an active role in their lives, even if that's not what they want.

The movie is funny, in a polite and moderate way. He's not flashy and knows how to parody the cop action movies that were successful in the 80's. Despite this, he has a far-fetched story involving a situation of insurance fraud and arms trafficking, villains that never deserve our respect nor threaten, cliché characters loaded with almost every possible stereotype and a total lack of direction.

The cast is weak and doesn't get decent material. The spotlight naturally turns to an excellent performance by Estelle Getty, who achieves the most popular performance of her career in this film. The most resounding name, however, is Sylvester Stallone, who offers us a work that almost satirizes some of the action works that made him popular. The actor would later admit that he considers this film the worst he has starred in, and I can see why: there are many bad scenes, and some of them are particularly worthy of regret (the diaper scene, I confess, was something I would refuse). Nevertheless, and despite being far from his usual record, Stallone guarantees an impacting and charismatic presence.

The film has heavily dated cinematography that reeks of the 80s, with washed out colors and low contrast, but I think that's part of the nature of the film, which can't go against what was in use when it was conceived. There are a lot of action scenes, highly predictable but well done, where the special effects work reasonably well. The rhythm is very good, it doesn't get into tiring melodramas nor does it really tire us.