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OscarRating:
Release Date: 06 May, 2003 Retail Price: $9.99 OUR Price: $9.99 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (14 total) |
Oscar Reviews
Unfairly mocked
If you enjoy farcical comedy and theater, you will really like this movie. We just happened to find it on the $5.50 DVD rack at Wal-mart one night and fell in love with it. (I would also suggest "Noises Off" with Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve.)
"Oscar'"s written very much in the French farce style, with people coming in and out of the scenes contstantly, funny names, outrageous coincedences, etc. Terrific performances by Marisa Tomei, Vincent Spano, Peter Reigert, and even Sly Stallone, who I was prepared to hate.
This is a wonderful, laugh out loud comedy, with very little if no cursing, suitable for watching with your teenage kids. I would probably buy it off the Wal-Mart super bargain rack to save a few bucks, though.
Landis Scores With Another Spoof
John Landis scored big with his spoof of high finance magnates "Trading Places" and revisits similar terrain in "Oscar," only this time the big money was made in the crime syndicate field. Landis shrewdly sets his satire in the Depression period to provide for the same kind of contrast between rich and poor that he showcased in "Trading Places", when Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche wagered to see what will happen when poor African American Eddie Murphy is allowed into their world to make business decisions.
In "Oscar" the story begins in a scene where Don Ameche appears again, but this time as family priest saying the last rites for syndicate tycoon Kirk Douglas. Former Universal siren Yvonne De Carlo is also in the scene, which provides an interesting opening to the film as Douglas implores son Sylvester Stallone to get out of the crime business and go legitimate, slapping him several times in a robust closing act to dramatically make his point.
When Douglas passes on loyal son Stallone, despite misgivings, agrees to give up his criminal enterprise. When an important meeting is scheduled with bankers we see a hilarious study in contrasts as Stallone's old hoods have great difficulty shaking their old personas and behaving like gentlemen.
While Stallone encounters problems enough with the transition to business executive his accountant tells him he wants a raise because he is in love and wants to marry Stallone's daughter. Stallone becomes enraged and states that the fiancée in question is not actually his daughter. Meanwhile his own daughter that he acknowledges, who wants to move out from under the suffocating enclosure of the family mansion under her father's constant thumb, begins making marriage noises of his own.
Stallone is forced to constantly shift gears, all the while bemoaning that his concentration is being disrupted on the day of his important meeting with leading bankers who will propel him out of the crime field. When the identity shifts and strategic jockeying reaches a crescendo it reminds one of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's "Whose on First?" routine.
Eventually former Stallone mansion domestic Linda Gray of "Dallas" television fame surfaces. She makes a startling announcement near the film's conclusion that clears up identity problems in a manner that shocks Stallone.
More Customer Reviews (17 total)
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