Curt
Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.
patriciajohnson-61570
Will Oscar be seen as a cult film in the future? I don't know how many years it takes for a film to be start being considered underrated or cult even. 10? 20 years? Oscar was a bomb at the time of release but now in hindsight the film fares much better. Stallone is great as the Itallian gangster having a crisis both existentially and from his immediate family. This is an underrated movie in my opinion but you be the judge. This isn't one of Stallone's better films but it is a much better film than stop, or my mom will shoot.
tsmith-65016
Yeah, I said silly!
Look, is it a masterpiece? No. But it's funny! The humor is dumb and predictable but utterly delightful. It's a comedy of errors with a surprisingly star studded cast. If you need a break from life and a good laugh, sometimes Sly Stallone as a mobster is the remedy!
johnnyboyz
I think Ken Hanke's remark, when writing in North Carolina's "Mountain Xpress" newspaper, that 1991 film "Oscar" is a "bad idea badly executed" cuts closest to what I thought of this John Landis comedy than any other remark. Indeed, you cannot fault its ambition, and the film is not without the odd laugh, but I think there is a very real and very cutting reason Sylvester Stallone is not an actor especially synonymous with comedy and this film is it.There is a branch of film theory which looks at the careers of people such as Stallone and, to a greater extent, Arnold Schwarzenegger in a post-Cold War world; namely, that without an enemy, in the form of the Soviet Union, for the American film industry to flex its muscles toward in the form of a "Rambo" series, big-money action stars such as the aforementioned Stallone and Schwarzenegger are redundant in the same way a vast arsenal of weaponry capable of untold destruction might be.With Reagan out of the White House (and the more effeminate, 'catch-all' William Clinton in), and with the American nation lacking in an ideological enemy, it is no wonder that films such as "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!"; "Junior" and, indeed, "Oscar" became more prominent in the output of either of these actors. Actioners were still made, but the leads in these films suddenly seemed vulnerable – the protagonists in "Eraser" and "Cliffhanger" were no longer really the gun-toting action heroes they would have been a decade earlier. Counter-arguments might be made with regards to "Judge Dread" and "Demolition Man".As for "Oscar", it is tough to think that the film is anything else other than close to terrible. It becomes too carried away by its own premise, and even begins to come across as quite arrogant in its thinking that we will embrace the approach to its material – that of a frenetic series of events which causes numerous comedic comings-and-goings. Meanwhile, one grows weary of being cooped up in the lead character's huge Chicago mansion, and begins to long for some sort of adventure or characterisation set outside of it. By the final reel, John Landis is relying on the spectacle of Sylvester Stallone emptying out onto a desk a handbag of lady's underwear to induce a laugh. Needless to say, it doesn't arrive.In early 1930's prohibition America, Stallone is Angelo Provolone – an Italian-American gangster at the peak of his powers in protection and liquor racketeering. His tale unfolds over a single day one month on from his father's death and on the brink of a major investment deal with a local bank whereby Stallone's outfit will leave the criminal underworld and go 'straight'. There are amusing references, amusing for the fact they are eerily topical 25 years on, as to just how 'straight' Angelo's outfit will be now that he is wrapped up in the banking industry. His reason for doing this was brought on by his father who, on his death-bed, emphasised how Stallone's actions as a mobster brought shame on the Provolone family name. Thus, Angelo seeks to do his father proud in hindsight of this revelation and become law-abiding.But the film is far from the touching, soul-shattering tale of redemption it ought to have been as a son strives to fulfil a dying wish. Surely the respectable thing would have been to begin again from the bottom of a different career ladder and work one's way up."Oscar" essentially comes to form a series of comedic interludes set in one very large house which revolve around far too many different characters wanting very different things and a spate of mix ups involving a set of people you might get if you chemically hybridised "Goodfellas" with "Bugsy Malone". One of these mock-ups is the character played by Vincent Spano, who does a wonderful job in portraying both the innocence and ruthlessness of Provolone's shrewd bookkeeper Anthony – he is in love with someone more connected to the Provolones than first appears. Meanwhile, the more we get of Angelo's bored and frustrated daughter Lisa (Marisa Tomei), the more we want the film to be about her tribulations of staring down a Mafioso dad and an arranged marriage.Landis doesn't capture the right tone. Kids might find the spectacle of Stallone standing in an office pointing a chicken drumstick at somebody having first thought it a gun to be amusing, but the adults are unmoved; meanwhile, nobody under the age of 25 will understand why the fact Lisa is reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover" is so important to who she is and where she wants to be when the films introduces her for the very first time. For younger viewers, the repetitiveness of the film's setting; tone and material might become tiresome, while for the adults there just isn't enough meat on the bone to get stuck into to begin with.Otherwise, the film is actually fairly boring all things considered. It is a long time since I have been genuinely bored with a film like I was with "Oscar". Stallone's character's quest to leave behind the criminal underworld - ditching, in the process, all use of gangster slang his bodyguards might use and resorting to intimidation to make a point - becomes hopelessly lost amidst a slew of supporting acts coming; going; leaving and returning for a variety of inane reasons and that real sense of mind-numbing claustrophobia as the mansion they'll all occupying seems to close in on us. It would be impossible to recommend "Oscar".
Dana
Fantastic cast. You'll laugh out loud. I haven't laughed this much in a long time. Sylvester did great in this comedy, he was really funny. The plot is great, it has twists, you keep on laughing the entire time.I haven't watched the original one so i don't know which one is better but I'm totally satisfied with this version, it has everything a great movie needs. I'll be honest with you I rarely find comedy movies worth watching (most of them just makes you laugh few times only) but this one takes comedy into new level.While watching it I kept on laughing my family got excited they wanted to watch it.I watch this movie whenever I feel down. This is maybe one of the best comedies I have seen. It's a must-see movie, way better than modern comedy movies.
