Sorry, this movie sucks

A Brilliant Conflict

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I'm afraid that too much rests on the shoulders of Sylvester Stallone and Estelle Getty to really make Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot truly gel as a big screen comedy. The film plays more like a long episode of a television situation comedy. I don't believe a small screen TV series was ever contemplated.Stallone is no Rambo in this film, he's just your average working LA cop who is working on a case involving stolen gun trafficking. One fine day his mother from Newark drops in and just takes over, his job and even his love life. That gets a bit complicated too because he's involved in an open secret romance with his immediate superior Lt. Jo Beth Williams.Getty who is ever helpful decided to put Sly's service weapon into the laundry, to be fair he'd stashed it there and she does ruin it. But what are mom's for but to help in crisis. In making an illegal buy of a new and most illegal machine gun, she witnesses a murder of one of the men. It's the case Stallone is working, but we don't know that yet.Best scene is Sly trying to talk potential suicide Nathan Sadler down from a window ledge. Sadler has mommy issues, but when Getty takes over the microphone Sadler does change his mind deciding that Stallone has much bigger problems.Kudos also go to Dennis Burkley the surviving illegal gun dealer who a gang that murdered his brother because the two stole the weapons from them gets kind of adopted by Getty.Funny in spots, but more silly overall.

"Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" was written by the late Blake Snyder (et. al), author of the popular "Save the Cat!" screen writing books, and seems to demonstrate the adage that those who can do, while those who can't teach. I was interested to see how the much touted Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (or BS-squared) was applied in one of his own screenplays, but was left more confused than enlightened. The opening image doesn't mirror the final image. The dark night of the soul was not particularly bleak or believable. I'm not sure of exactly what constitutes the A and B stories, but assume the mother helping son become a better policeman to win the girl was the B story and chasing down the arms dealers was the A story, but I don't see their synthesis. I expected a somewhat formulaic story with distinct beats and clearly defined acts, but found the beats blurred. The protagonists should be propelled into the second act, e.g., not his mother. One problem seems to be that the characters were stripped of distinct ethnic backgrounds and made generic. I would venture to guess that the role of Sgt. Joe Bomowski was originally envisioned as Jewish character with a Jewish mother. In my experience, having grown up with an Italian mother in a school district that was half Jewish, half gentile with very few blacks, Asians or Hispanics, Jewish mothers are very much like Italian mothers, but they are not identical or interchangeable. For both, culture and religious beliefs are important. Eating a good breakfast is important, but not a breakfast of generic foods. The late Estelle Getty did a good job with the role as written, but she didn't sprinkle her dialogue with Yiddish or Italian homilies, adages, or phrases. She wants her son to marry a nice girl, but not specifically a nice Jewish girl in a Synagogue or a nice Italian girl in a Catholic cathedral. Stripping away the ethnicity makes the characters much more shallow and less believable. The movie is a bit of a train wreck, but it has a few good moments. Mommy telling her son he needs to change, then showing him in nappies was amusing. Bomowski saying the office staff could figure something out because they were detectives was a good line. The airport chase scene was well done. But most of the movie is fairly tepid, lame, unoriginal and not believable, even within the relaxed standards of a comedy. The age-appropriate romance was particularly tepid. The villains weren't evil. The plot made little sense. The notion that an insurance company couldn't determine if steel devices were damaged in a fire that left the structure standing and would pay a claim on illegal inventory items stretched credulity past its limits. Police procedures were non-existent. Most of the jokes were forced and not particularly funny. Stallone is a talented actor and demonstrated his comedic skills in the under-rated "Oscar." Getty was also talented and gave the role her best. But they didn't look or act as if they were from the same family, despite insisting as much repeatedly in the dialogue.

I found this movie to be very watchable. I had read about it on Stallone's trivia and because of the awful reviews and what has been said about it I thought that I would turn it off after ten minutes. Instead I thought it was really funny, better than other comedy movies like 'The Hangover' which are critically acclaimed. I think people just like to belittle Sly, and his appearance in such a movie was an easy target. Him and Estelle Getty had great chemistry together. As a comedy it succeeds, and I would recommend it to anyone. Don't believe the reviewers who are constantly shoving pretentious, mediocre and often very unfunny comedies down the viewing public's throat! After my experience watching this movie I'm going to check out 'Oscar', another of Stallone's comedy outlets, and in future ignore IMDb's rating system, the top 250 is questionable; so perhaps I should start at the bottom, where this magnificent film has so unfairly been placed!

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.