Interesting story:
I read this thread and begin penning a reply. That reply becomes a bit lengthy so I turn it into an actual review for
Oscar.
The bad news?
That tomato I had up for this movie is no more. Look what you did Seth!
Long story short? My memories of the film were fairly charitable. But I bought the DVD for 7 bucks and watched it just a few days ago. Sorry to say my opinion of the movie sorta sunk...
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Believe it or not...I went to college. And one of the coolest things about college is this: movie studios used to run a lot of test screenings for the coeds. Temple University had four or five of these screenings a semester, usually on Friday afternoons. Talk about incentive to skip class! (As if I needed MORE.) So back in '91 they ran
Oscar for us, and I distinctly remember enjoying it and also being surprised by that fact. So now it's over ten years later and a recent DVD release has allowed me to revisit with this forgotten (and periodically derided) little farce.
I slid the disc into my player and sent my face on cringe.
What was I thinking back then? Urggh is this a broad and belabored and strained little sitcom. I've always been a huge fan of "several actors bumping into each other" movies, hence my admiration for flicks like
Clue and
Noises Off! and
Scavenger Hunt. (Sue me.) But
Oscar only occasionally flirts with the breathless lunacy of well-conceived farce - and there are huge, painful gaps in between the few worthwhile gags.
The plot sees Angelo Provolone (it's funny cuz it's a cheese) as a 1930's mob boss who (thanks to a goofy deathbed promise) must now go completely legit. All of the action (and there's quite a bit) takes place in one afternoon, as easily a dozen frantic characters parade through Provolone's estate. There's a devious suitor for Angelo's daughter, a prim and proper professor, a priest, a few tailors, several lowlifes and henchmen, irritated spouses, disillusioned servants, pissed-off policemen, etc., etc.
Although I don't dig
Oscar nearly as much as I used to, I still think it's light years better than the other "comedies" that Sly has headlined. Then again I'm comparing it so dreck like
Rhinestone,
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! and the sorta-comedy
Avenging Angelo, so we're not exactly talking high praise here.
Oscar is probably worth seeing for the performances of Tim Curry (he earns the only real OUT LOUD "haha" laughs in the movie), Peter Riegert (clearly having a ball in pseudo-Three Stooges mode), Kurtwood Smith (not doing much of anything, but Kurt's always cool), Bill Atherton (doing his patented smarmy asshole schtick) and the truly inspired work of Martin Ferrero and Harry Shearer as tailors mistaken for hit-men.
The bulk of the problem lies in Stallone himself; he simply seems WAY too self-aware - plus the flick is directed rather languidly by Landis. The movie absolutely screams "stage adaptation" and the actors seem to know they're in a 'madcap farce', while Landis apparently doesn't.
Have Jonathan Lynn (
My Cousin Vinny,
Greedy,
Clue) direct this movie and I bet I'd love it.
One noteworthy aspect that
may make the movie fun for film freaks is the astonishingly large cast.
You got
Sly Stallone trying hard and
Kirk Douglas in a silly-yet-fun cameo; you got a young (and frankly awful)
Marisa Tomei channeling Betty Boop and the ever-sultry
Ornella Muti (who clearly should avoid comedy); there's
Chazz Palminteri just before he got real big (and then real small again) and
Don Ameche added just for some 'real-movie' credibility; the flick looks like a "who's-who" of hard-working character actors: Art LeFleur, Mark Metcalf, Atherton, Ferrero, Ken Howard, Richard Romanus, Joey Travolta...and I swear I even saw Lilly Munster herself.
So yeah: there's some fun to be had. On the whole I'd say it's a very clumsy comedy with a handful of really inspired moments. It deserves the relative obscurity it's mired in, though in no way does
Oscar deserve the derision usually reserved for Stallone's other comedic efforts.
Odd that the director behind stuff like
Animal House and
The Blues Brothers would deliver such a stale piece of slapstick. Certainly worthy of a 'curiosity value' visit on cable TV late one night, but not much more.
