{"id":706786,"date":"2026-01-19T17:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706786\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T17:14:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:14:16","slug":"why-oscar-1991-deserves-a-second-look-as-sylvester-stallones-best-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706786\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oscar (1991) Deserves a Second Look as Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Best Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n


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Chris<\/p>\n

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If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably remember when action stars inevitably tried their hand at comedy. It was practically a rite of passage. While many stumbled, one actor pulled it off better than anyone else \u2014 Arnold Schwarzenegger. But in the shadow of Arnold\u2019s success lies a forgotten, unfairly maligned comedy that proves Sylvester Stallone<\/a> was far better at comedy than history suggests: John Landis\u2019\u00a0Oscar.<\/p>\n

When Action Stars Started Doing Comedy<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a child of the eighties, you remember when all the action stars of the era started to do comedy. It was just a thing that would inevitably happen for all of them once they reached a certain level. Everyone did it \u2014 but there was one guy who did it better than anyone else, and that was Arnold Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n

Arnie\u2019s detour into comedy was so wildly successful it elevated his action game, broadened his fan base, and didn\u2019t go unnoticed by his contemporaries. It also arguably climaxed in total disaster for his biggest competitor of the era, Sylvester Stallone, whose\u00a0Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot<\/a>\u00a0is the movie he\u2019ll never live down.<\/p>\n

Yet Stallone was better at comedy than anyone really gives him credit for, and today we\u2019re going to look at one of his movies that \u2014 despite now being hugely obscure \u2014 is actually pretty good: John Landis\u2019 gangster farce\u00a0Oscar.<\/p>\n

Clint Eastwood, Clyde the Orangutan, and the Blueprint<\/p>\n

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Jump back to 1978, when the whole notion of action heroes doing comedy really began. At the time, there was no bigger box office star in the world than Clint Eastwood, but he grew tired of his increasingly grim action movies and wanted to try something lighter.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why he co-starred with an orangutan named Clyde in the truck-driving, yee-haw good-old-boy comedy\u00a0Every Which Way But Loose. Eastwood played a nice-guy trucker and bareknuckle brawling champ (hey \u2014 it\u2019s still an Eastwood movie), with Clyde as his BFF (cut to Clyde flipping off a biker).<\/p>\n

Everyone begged him not to do it. His longtime friend Burt Reynolds warned audiences would never accept him in a movie that \u2014 frankly \u2014 Burt himself probably should have starred in. Instead, it made over $100 million in 1978 money, becoming Clint\u2019s biggest hit ever, spawning a sequel (Any Which Way You Can) and even pushing Reynolds into making his own against-type film,\u00a0Sharky\u2019s Machine, one of his best.<\/p>\n

Maybe there\u00a0was\u00a0something to this against-type thing after all.<\/p>\n

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Comedy Crossover<\/p>\n

One person who took notice of Clint\u2019s monkey movie was Arnold Schwarzenegger<\/a>. His Hollywood dreams hadn\u2019t fully materialized yet, but once he hit peak action-star status, he decided it was time to try comedy.<\/p>\n

That movie was\u00a0Twins, pairing Arnold with Danny DeVito under Ivan Reitman\u2019s direction. It became Arnie\u2019s biggest hit ever and introduced him to an entirely new audience. I remember seeing it in theaters as a six-year-old \u2014 the audience was in hysterics the entire time.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Arnold had crossover appeal, and when he returned to action, the results were massive:\u00a0Total Recall\u00a0and\u00a0Terminator 2.<\/p>\n

Stallone\u2019s Rivalry with Arnold \u2014 and a Bad Moment to Try Comedy<\/p>\n

One of the most famous gags in\u00a0Twins\u00a0has Arnold walking past a theater playing\u00a0Rambo III\u00a0and laughing at the size of Stallone\u2019s muscles. Their rivalry was real, even if good-natured.<\/p>\n

If Arnold could get raves for comedy, Stallone wanted in. Unfortunately, it came at the worst possible time.\u00a0Rambo IIIunderperformed,\u00a0Lock Up\u00a0flopped,\u00a0Tango & Cash\u00a0did fine, and\u00a0Rocky V\u00a0tanked badly. Now was not the time to gamble on comedy \u2014 but Sly did anyway.<\/p>\n

John Landis, Oscar, and a Risky Comeback<\/p>\n

Enter John Landis. Like Stallone, Landis was at a low ebb \u2014 not because of flops, but because of tragedy. His \u201980s output (The Blues Brothers,\u00a0Trading Places,\u00a0Spies Like Us,\u00a0The Three Amigos,\u00a0Coming to America) was wildly successful, but his involvement in\u00a0Twilight Zone: The Movie\u00a0resulted in a devastating on-set accident that killed Vic Morrow and two child actors.<\/p>\n

Though acquitted, Landis was effectively blacklisted.<\/p>\n

Needing a hit, he turned to Disney\u2019s Touchstone Pictures and proposed remaking the 1967 French farce\u00a0Oscar, originally starring Louis de Fun\u00e8s. Landis reimagined the industrialist as a 1930s gangster and infused the tone with Damon Runyon-style humor.<\/p>\n

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Why Sylvester Stallone Works in Oscar<\/p>\n

Originally envisioned as a John Belushi or even Al Pacino vehicle, the role of \u201cSnaps\u201d Provolone ultimately went to Stallone. Critics scoffed, but the truth is Stallone is surprisingly effective.<\/p>\n

Playing it like a 1930s screwball farce in the vein of Edward G. Robinson, Stallone gives Snaps a gentle charm. He\u2019s overwhelmed, passive, and constantly reacting to chaos \u2014 which is exactly what makes him funny. He handles the dialogue well, has a twinkle in his eye, and looks the part.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, he may not be Louis de Fun\u00e8s-level caustic, but the approach works.<\/p>\n

An Insanely Stacked Supporting Cast<\/p>\n

Landis\u2019 production values are immaculate, but the cast is outrageous:<\/p>\n