Oscar

Buena Vista Pictures | Release Date: April 26, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

47	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Ted Mahar

Landis keep things moving smoothly as both a director and supervising editor. He too has an uncharacteristic light touch. The film is simply a happy surprise. [26 Apr 1991, p.R13]

Harper Barnes

Stallone starring in a comedy? Absolutely. Furthermore, it's a terrific comedy. Oscar is a fast-moving, highly stylized, very entertaining farce that is played as a combination of comic opera (complete with numerous soundtrack references to The Barber of Seville) and Depression-era zany comedy. [26 Apr 1991, p.3F]

Gene Siskel

Director John Landis' comic timing is a little slow in spots - we get the joke before he thinks we will - but Oscar generates a solid pace of rolling big laughs and winds up as a pretty good time at the movies. [26 Apr 1991, p.C]

Kathleen Maher

Stallone makes good-hearted fun of his street-wise Italian-American persona and also of himself as big shot. I'm not used to having much good to say about the guy, but Stallone has evidenced a nascient sense of humor before, and here he allows it to blossom. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Mr. Stallone displays an unexpected gameness, even a flair, for the kind of broadly durable comedy that is the television sitcom's specialty. It works a lot better than might have been expected. Mr. Stallone may not be a comic genius, but he's definitely a sport. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The script is sharp, if formulaic, but the film suffers from several contradictions: this is a farce without sexual tension, a family film with Stallone in the lead, a Landis comedy without vulgarity. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Oscar is an intermittently amusing throwback to gangster comedies of the 1930s. While dominated by star Sylvester Stallone and heavy doses of production and costume design, pic is most distinguished by sterling turns by superb character actors. Read full review

Dave Kehr

For a film meant to define a lighter and fresher image for Stallone, Oscar doesn't quite get the job done. [26 Apr 1991, p.B]

Jay Carr

While visually handsome, Oscar is terminally sluggish. [26 Apr 1991, p.71]

Edward Guthmann

As dreary as Oscar is for the majority of its 110 minutes, the movie sings whenever Shearer and Ferrero are on screen. [26 Apr 1991, p.E1]

Michael Upchurch

This is disposable cinema for those who have an excess of time on their hands. Save it for video. Then you can do household chores while you wait for its occasional laughs. [26 Apr 1991, p.20]

Rick Groen

After years of inadvertently making us laugh, Sylvester Stallone actually does a picture designed to be funny. It isn't, not very, but, yo, give the man credit for going with the flow. [01 May 1991]

Jay Boyar

Fifteen years ago Sylvester Stallone starred in a movie called Rocky, which won an Oscar. Now he is starring in a movie called Oscar that is, well, a little rocky. [29 Apr 1991, p.D1]

Kenneth Turan

To say that Oscar, Sylvester Stallone’s latest attempt to become king of comedy, is funnier than might be expected (which it is) is really not saying that much. Read full review

Janis Froelich

It's not that the man who brought us Rocky Balboa doesn't fit into a funny movie, it's just that as the lead of rollicking Oscar, he's cast beyond his capabilities. [26 Apr 1991, p.6]

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

In spite of its harmlessness and enjoyable supporting cast, Oscar is irrefutable evidence of the cynicism and insularity of Hollywood power brokers and hack filmmakers. Read full review

Susan Wloszczyna

Oscar is a marathon of running gags, but few cross the finish line. [26 Apr 1991, p.4D]

Owen Gleiberman

Every chuckle feels engineered. Stallone is reduced to playing straight man to a gaggle of stock Damon Runyon hoods, though Tim Curry, looking like a stuffed cod, brings a prissy, nerdish glee to the role of a madly obsequious linguistics professor. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Stallone is to humor what John Goodman is to ballet. Read full review

Bill Cosford

Oscar, the new Stallone vehicle, is dreadful for an hour or so, then merely bad. By the time it's bearable, the picture is almost over. And by the time it's over, no regrets. [26 Apr 1991, p.G5]