The whole joke is in the title, with Sylvester Stallone as a veteran cop and Estelle Getty as his petite, meddling mother. Sure, she’s a little old lady, but she’s from Newark, so she’s fearless. When she witnesses a murder, she insists on tagging along as her son investigates. It’s not a bad satirical idea, but the execution isn’t really up to snuff. Getty gives the same bull-in-a-china-shop performance she gave for years on Golden Girls, while Stallone plays straight man and cringes in embarrassment over his smothering mother’s behavior.
Their rhythm together is off, and the whole thing plays like a comic sketch that went on for 20 minutes too long. Director Roger Spottiswoode is the one who paired Tom Hanks and Beasley the Mastiff in Turner & Hooch and Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. in Air America, so perhaps he hadn’t learned his lesson yet.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMQ-RoCKa6o]