MovieChat Forums > Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) Discussion > finally watched this a few days ago and ...

finally watched this a few days ago and oh my gosh now i finally know why it was panned when it came out

posted 5 years ago by lukejbarnett (1869)
23 replies | jump to latest

this is without a doubt one of the worst movies i've ever watched. there is absolutely nothing good about it. i never laughed, i only put out air in a this is funny way 2 times from two kind of funny lines. so i guess this movie has that going for it but that's it.

this is one of the most painfully unfunny movies i've ever watched. there's no interesting characters. every character is paper thinly wrote, no backstory, no depth to them. and the character dynamics are paper thin also. even the love part of the movie is so generic it feels fake.

it's not painful to watch. it's also worthless to watch. there is nothing redeeming or good about it. it's so bad that even stallone always looks disinterested in this, like he'd rather not be acting in this movie. i've never seen him look or act so bored or stiff or tired in a movie before.

[–] Kowalski (79128) 5 years ago

90s MAINSTREAM ACTION COMEDY AT ITS BEST.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

Hmm, well ok, but saying this is a bad movie is like saying Bob Dylan can't sing or Kim Kardashian has an enormously fat ass - it's kind of obvious.

I remember having a laugh or two but I haven't seen it in many years. Then again, I'm a diehard Stallone fan so I forgive him for even his most stupid movies.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 24 days ago

That is a litttle too harsh, in my opinion. If someone says it's not a good movie, I won't argue. It may be a bad film, but it's also a strange film, and in its strangeness and bizarre qualities I found it entertaining. The whole premise is bonkers and scenes like washing the gun and Stallone in a diaper during the dream sequence are just so weird that they make the film interesting. Plus, I enjoyed seeing Estelle Getty tackle a different role than the mother in Golden Girls.

I would classify the movie as an "interesting failure." I won't say it's a good film but I would rather watch a movie like this than watch a generic, by-the-numbers action film that just feels like a movie that I've already seen a hundred times before.

[–] Tam87 (1598) 24 days ago

Well said. Sly’s mom washing his gun with soap is another interesting scene.

It’s an enjoyable bad movie.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 24 days ago

It's certainly worthy of a better score than a 4.4

[–] Tam87 (1598) 24 days ago

Yeah, I've seen way worse. Arnold's film 'Junior' where he plays a pregnant dude is ten times worse, and doesn't get half the flack.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 23 days ago

I think I skipped that one on purpose.

[–] Tam87 (1598) 24 days ago

It was ok. Stallone has done much worse films like Rhinestone and Driven.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 24 days ago

I saw Driven in the theater and enjoyed it. I then tried rewatching it several years later and liked it a lot less. One day I may have to give it a third go-around as a tie-breaker.

Renny Harlin's career has been very strange. He delivered some well-made, really entertaining films in the 90s but then totally fell off in the 21st century to the point where his films don't even seem like they were made by the same guy. That Hercules movie he did in 2014 is genuinely one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

[–] Tam87 (1598) 24 days ago

Have you seen Mindhunters? That's a decent Renny Harlin movie from his post 90s heyday which I recommend if you haven't seen it. I also quite liked Devil's Pass (aka The Dyatlov Pass Incident) which is sort of based on a real mystery, quite good for a lower budget b-movie. Harlin's first film he made in Finland, Arctic Heat, is ok as well.

I haven't seen any of Harlin's other post 90s films (I gave up on Exorcist: The Beginning after 20 mins). One look at imdb says he's mostly moved into tv. Harlin reminds me of Stephen Hopkins, both very skilled at visuals & camera movement, both made their name with high profile action sequels in the same year (Predator 2 & Die Hard 2) after starting out with the NOES franchise, and then peaked in the 90s. Classic directors.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 23 days ago

Of his post-2000 work, I've seen Driven, Exorcist: The Beginning, The Legend of Hercules and The Bricklayer. I feel like in the early 2000s he was still doing at least decent work even if it wasn't up to the level of his earlier stuff, but by the time he got to The Legend of Hercules he had completely lost his touch.

I have heard Mindhunters is okay so at some point I should check it out.

Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea is a really solid run. TLKG is one of the most underrated action films of all time.

[–] Tam87 (1598) 23 days ago

Mindhunters is like Deep Blue Sea but set on land with a killer instead of a shark. It's decent fun.

What I like about TLKG is the snow setting, you know you're watching a Harlin movie when you see those snow covered landscapes, it's his ode to Finland. All his films have a distinct style, they're action packed but have a lot of character to them

[–] johnmiller (4011) 24 days ago

Roger Spottiswoode, who directed the great "Under Fire" directed this. How does THAT happen?

[–] Tam87 (1598) 24 days ago

He moved into comedy during the later 80s, doing films with Robin Williams (Best of Times) and Tom Hanks (Turner & Hooch). Sly probably hand picked him.

[–] Cognoscente (2778) 24 days ago

It's strange that Sly chose to do this movie instead of following through with his intention of starring alongside Cynthia Rothrock in The Executioner.

He already did a successful action comedy (Tango & Cash) whereas his attempt at doing a straight-up comedy, Oscar (1991), was a flop.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 23 days ago

According to Arnold--and I think that Sly may have confirmed this but I'm not certain--he read the script for the film and thought it was no good but he said that he was interested, with the intention of tricking Sly into taking the role instead. He figured that if Sly thought he was stealing something away from Arnold, he'd go for it. So at least according to what Arnold says, he bamboozled Stallone into starring in a bad movie.

[–] Cognoscente (2778) 23 days ago

Coincidentally, Cynthia was originally wanted for an Arnie movie (Sharon Stone's role in Total Recall).

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8859) 23 days ago

That's interesting. I'd love for Cynthia to have gotten a big break and gotten a high-profile role in a film with one of these guys.

[–] Tam87 (1598) 23 days ago

It's strange that Sly chose to do this movie instead of following through with his intention of starring alongside Cynthia Rothrock in The Executioner.

Yeah, but this would've been better than that film:

Sylvester Stallone was involved in a movie about a hurricane called Gale Force, which was to be an action disaster thriller. The movie was described as "Die Hard in a hurricane".

Gale Force was an action disaster thriller that Stallone was set to star in. The movie was to be about an ex-Navy SEAL who fights against pirates during a hurricane. Renny Harlin was to direct the movie.

David Chappe wrote the first version of the script in 1984. Carolco bought the final draft of the script in 1989. Harlin was paid $3 million to direct the movie, but he demanded many rewrites of the script.

As PMX alluded to, Sly wanted to try his hand at comedy and mimic's Arnold's success with Twins etc.

I would've liked to have seen the proposed Stallone-John Candy comedy 'Barfolomew vs Neff' where they played feuding neighbours. That would've been better than this and Oscar.

[–] Cognoscente (2778) 23 days ago

Even better than those two films were these cancelled projects: Isobar and Princess of Mars (which would have been immediately compared to Total Recall).

[–] Tam87 (1598) 23 days ago

Isobar was a science fiction film starring Sylvester Stallone that was canceled due to Carolco Pictures' bankruptcy. The film was originally titled The Train and was written by Jim Uhls.

Ridley Scott was originally set to direct the film in the late 1980s, but left the project to direct Thelma and Louise

Joel Silver bought the rights to the film and hired Steven E. de Souza to rewrite the script

Roland Emmerich was hired to direct the film in 1990

The film was set to star Sylvester Stallone and Kim Basinger

The film was budgeted at $90 million

Sounds good.

[–] Cognoscente (2778) 22 days ago

In the November 1992 issue (#80) of a French magazine called Mad Movies, special effects master Rick Baker said: "At the time, the Carolco people were touting Isobar as the most expensive film in the history of cinema. The script was like a mix of Total Recall and Alien. The action takes place in the future, and more precisely in a giant electromagnetic train, the size of a building. Because of the hole in the ozone layer, this sophisticated train is the only usable means of transport on the planet. In the hold, a genetically engineered plant makes the journey and gradually transforms into a gigantic plant monster by pumping the water reserves from the train's hydraulic system. Once the reserves are dried up, the plant, in order to survive and continue to grow, then attacks the passengers and drains them of all their liquid substances."

[–] Tam87 (1598) 22 days ago

That sounds a bit ambitious to say the least.

I think hollywood rejigged a lot of these films anyway. For example the film above called Gale Force aka "Die Hard In a Hurricane" sounds similar to Hard Rain.