It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The tough Sergeant Detective Joseph Andrew "Joe" Bomowski (Sylvester Stallone) is an efficient cop that has a love affair with his Lieutenant Gwen Harper (JoBeth Williams), but he never proposes her to a serious commitment. When his overprotective mother Tutti Bomowski (Estelle Getty) comes from Newark, New Jersey, to spend a couple of day visiting him, his life turns upside-down. She decides to clean his pistol with bleach and ruins it; so she decides to buy another weapon for Joe and stumbles upon two criminals selling illegal weapons. But there is a shootout and Tutti witnesses a murder. Now she has to stay with Joe since she is a witness, driving him crazy with her interference."Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" is an unfunny and moronic comedy with an imbecile story that does not make laugh. Estelle Getty is awful in the role of Tutti Bomowski, one of the most annoying and silly characters ever. It is impossible to laugh with her attitudes that seem to be symptoms of dementia. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Pare! Senão Mamãe Atira" ("Stop! Otherwise Mom Shoots")

Unusual circumstances lead to a hard-nosed detective teaming up with his domineering mother in this action comedy starring Sylvester Stallone, who once cited it as the worst film of his acting career. With Stallone's comment and the film's sweep at the 1992 Razzies, 'Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot' has gained an unfairly negative reputation over the years. Estelle Getty is certainly way over-the-top and the basic plot is predictable with Stallone eventually coming to appreciate his mother after a lot of resistance, but there are enough scattered laughs that the film never once bores. Roger Rees (who would go onto to hilariously lampoon Alan Rickman in 'Men in Tights' one year later) is great as the befuddled antagonist in the tale, managing to maintain a straight face while talking about Getty's plans to pull down his pants and spank him! Alan Silvestri's mysterious, jazzy music score also rates as one of his best and Getty has some funny lines even if her character is too irksome for one to ever truly warm towards. The action scenes are admittedly quite nifty too (director Roger Spottiswoode would later go helm the riveting 'Tomorrow Never Dies'). Sure, this not a refreshingly classy, laugh-out-loud comedy like 'Oscar' was for Stallone, but neither is it anywhere near as mediocre as one might expect. Stallone's uttering the title line is worth a chuckle alone.

"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!