Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone was the absolute action god of the 80s. The extremely casual Expendables 4 pensioner doesn’t mind that some of the hits weren’t necessarily at Rocky level. The terrible comedy Stop! Or my mommy will shoot! However, it still burns in his soul. Probably too, because Sly only took the role because of a nasty trick from Schwarzenegger.
Sylvester Stallone still hates his worst movie
Both had the same problem in the early 90s: The era of the indestructible biceps warrior was slowly over, Both action heroes looked for other role profiles. In 1992, Stallone decided to make Stop! Or my mommy will shoot! And received the worst slap in the face of his career.
Check out the trailer for Stop! Or my mom will shoot
Stop! or My Mom will Shoot (1992) trailer
The story about the hardened cop Andrew (Stallone), who gets into all sorts of trouble because of his resolute helicopter mother Tutti (Estelle Getty), was completely torn apart by critics and audiences alike. “Completely idiotic and downright hilariously unfunny“ is the consensus of the critics site Rotten Tomatoes. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that the film was “so stupid that you just stare at the screen in stunned disbelief“can.
And Stallone seems to completely share this opinion. During an Internet discussion with fans on the site Ain’t it Cool, he revealed in 2006:
The worst film I’ve ever made. Maybe even the worst in the entire solar system. […] A tapeworm could write a better script. In China they show the film once a week to reduce the birth rate to zero. If it were twice a week, the whole of China would be extinct in 20 years. Arnold Schwarzenegger is to blame for Sylvester Stallone’s biggest flop
Maybe Stallone’s misery would only be half as painful if it weren’t for Schwarzenegger his biggest rival had a hand in it. Apparently he knew how to use the fierce competition between them to his advantage: he declared that he absolutely wanted to play the main role in Stop! Or my mom shoots wanting to take over even though he thought the script was terrible. This eventually came to Stallone’s attention, as he describes on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:
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My agent then told me, ‘You have to make the film, otherwise Arnold will make it! I’m telling you, if you watch Stop! Or my mommy doesn’t shoot, he will.’ So I said, ‘Well, I’ll do it.’ For Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone’s debacle was ‘a piece of shit’
His rival on Jimmy Kimmel Live made a similar statement:
The script was a piece of shit […] but Sly called me and asked me about it and I said, ‘I think I’ll do it.’ And since we had a rivalry going on, he immediately called the producers and said, ‘Whatever it takes, I’ll do the movie!’
Apparently nothing remains of the hateful rivalry a mixture of respect and juicy anecdotes. But even old fans can confirm: Stop! Or my mommy’s shooting is still underground.
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