Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I was up late with the television on again. After flipping through the channels, I found a movie, Oscar, that was just coming on so I left it on. I’d seen Oscar a few times before and I’d liked it. It had been a while since the last time I saw Oscar, and I’d forgotten a few things that happened in the movie. The movie was somewhat silly, but I did enjoy it, especially since I watched it after a stressful class. I’ve had to take some classes related to my job, and the last one hasn’t been fun at all. That night I was still feeling a bit stressed thanks to that class even though I had been home for several hours. Watching Oscar relaxed me - at least until I had to go to that class again.

PLOT

Angelo Provolone promised his dying father that he would end his life of crime and become a legitimate business man. Angelo, nicknamed Snaps, intended to follow through with his promise after his father died. He set up a meeting with some bankers to see about becoming a banker. He hired a man, Dr. Thornton Poole, to teach him enunciation. The same employees, Aldo, Connie, and Ace, still worked with him. They still called him Boss and carried guns. They were having some trouble adjusting to Angelo’s plans. The police still had his house under surveillance and didn’t believe that Angelo was going legitimate. The day of Angelo’s meeting with the bankers arrived. He didn’t want any complications, but everything started to go wrong.

Lisa, Angelo’s daughter, was upset and unhappy. She felt like her father was very controlling and she wanted out of his house. She told her father that she was in love and wanted to get married, but she didn’t say who she was in love with. Angelo wasn’t happy to hear what Lisa said. He wanted her to marry a local successful business man, Bruce Underwood, but Lisa didn’t like him and had no intention of marrying him. Angelo left to take care of something else and Lisa talked to the maid and got some advice. After the conversation, Lisa told her father that she was pregnant so that he would let her get married.

Anthony Rossano, Angelo’s accountant showed up wanting to talk to Angelo. Anthony said that he was in love with Angelo’s daughter and wanted to marry her. Anthony also said that he took $50,000 from Angelo and it was going to be a wedding present to his daughter. Angelo was furious about the money, and immediately came up with a plan to get the money back. Anthony converted the money into $50,000 worth of jewels. Anthony went to get the jewels and Angelo went back to talk to Lisa. Angelo then found out that Lisa didn’t want to marry Anthony, she was in love with Oscar, the chauffeur her father had fired.

A young woman, Theresa, showed up wanting to talk to Angelo. She told him how she was in love and planned to marry a man named Anthony Rossano. She had told Anthony that Angelo was her father. She wanted Angelo to go along with her lie, and he agreed. Aldo, Connie, and Ace were very confused by Angelo talking about his other daughter Theresa after that. Anthony returned with the jewels in a black bag. Anthony and Theresa talked, and had an argument after Theresa told Anthony the truth. Anthony wanted the jewels back and starting plotting how he could get them back.

The housekeeper quit and left to marry Bruce Underwood, which really irritated Angelo. She had some of her belongings in a black bag that looked just like the one the jewels were in, and she accidently took the wrong one. Angelo still wanted Anthony to marry Lisa so her baby would have a father. Anthony still loved Theresa, so he was trying to come up with a way to get out of marrying Lisa. Dr. Poole showed up at that time for Angelo’s lesson. Anthony decided to try to push Dr. Poole and Lisa together. Angelo discovered that the bag he thought was full of jewels was full of women’s underwear instead. A black bag full of money later arrived at the house, which added to the confusion. The police watching the house were convinced that Angelo had some kind of deal going on because of all the people coming and going with black bags. All of this happened before noon. Angelo was having a busy day, and the bankers were still due to arrive.

Was Angelo able to become a legitimate business man? Did Lisa get married? If she did, who did she marry? What happened to the jewels? What happened with Theresa and Anthony?

CAST

Sylvester Stallone - Angelo Provolone (Snaps)
Marisa Tomei - Lisa Provolone
Ornella Muti - Sofia Provolone
Peter Riegut - Aldo
Chazz Palminteri - Connie
Joey Travolta - Ace
Vincent Spano - Anthony Rossano
Elizabeth Barondes - Theresa
Tim Curry - Dr. Thornton Poole
Linda Grey - Roxanne
Jim Mulholland - Oscar
Kirk Douglas - Angelo’s father

John Landis - Director

Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland - Screenplay

Oscar was made in 1991 and rated PG. The movie was 109 minutes long. I don’t remember there being any swearing in the movie, but that could be because I watched the movie on televison this time and some swearing was edited out. Since the movie was rated PG, any swearing there was in the movie wouldn’t have been excessive. The word that rhymes with luck was never used in the movie. There wasn’t any violence in the movie. The movie was a comedy about one day in the life of a man trying to make a change in his life. Young children probably wouldn’t be interested in the movie, but I think it would be ok for older children to see.

I really enjoyed Oscar. The movie wasn’t serious in any way. It was a fun light-hearted movie. The movie didn’t make me think, but I did have to pay attention to keep up with what was going on and who was who. If you don’t pay attention, or miss part of the movie, that could leave you confused about what was going on. This was a fast paced movie with many things happening. Sometimes a few different things were going on with different characters at the same time in different rooms of the house. I didn’t think any part of the movie was boring. When I watched it this last time, it was several hours after I had gotten home from a class that I hated, and watching the movie really did relax me.

Oscar was a funny movie. The characters weren’t trying to be funny, but they things they did and said were very funny at times. Angelo just wanted everything to go smoothly on his first day as a legitimate business man. Instead, Angelo had one problem after another to deal with, all before noon of that day. Angelo’s reactions to those problems were very funny. As more things went wrong, Angelo looked more and more like a man on the verge of having a break down. Along with dealing with all the problems, Angelo was trying to get a new suit made. His tailors, brothers, were in the house for a while that day. Angelo had to keep leaving the fitting to deal with some other problem. At one time, Angelo was trying to convince someone to do something, and he insinuated that the tailors were hit men. The tailors started to talk to the man about making him a suit, and about another suit they had made, but the things they said did make it seem like they were talking about killing people. They really scared the man. That scene was hilarious.

Oscar was set in the 1930's. Prohibition was mentioned at one point in the movie. The costumes the characters wore did seem to be realistic for the time period the movie was set in. Cars were seen in a few scenes, and they were the cars from that time period. Those things added to the movie and made it seem more believable. Almost the entire movie took place in Angelo’s house. A few short scenes showed things outside as cars arrived and left from Angelo’s house. A few other scenes took place where the police had Angelo’s home staked out. The fact that most of the movie took place in Angelo’s home didn’t make it boring since there was a lot going on.

There wasn’t any violence in Oscar and there wasn’t much action in it either. The little action was near the end of the movie. The rest of the movie wasn’t boring though because so much was going on. There wasn’t any nudity in the movie. In one scene near the beginning of the movie, Lisa did flash her underwear. Soon after that she and the housekeeper had a conversation about some sexual things. Lisa then decided to tell her father that she was going to have a baby. There were a few other sexual references in the movie near the end. Since there were some sexual references in the movie, young children shouldn’t see it.

There was music playing during several different scenes in Oscar. During the opening credits, a song from an opera was played. I’ve heard that song before, but I can’t remember what the name of it was now. Angelo was Italian, and the music that was played during the movie sounded like it was Italian or had at least been influenced by Italian music. None of the music that was played sounded out of place. It all fit in with the movie and what was going on at the time.

I thought that the acting in Oscar was good. It wasn’t the best acting I’ve ever seen, but it was good. This was one of Sylvester Stallone’s best performances. It was a little different to see him in a comedy, but he was good in his role of Angelo. It seemed to be a little easier to understand Stallone in this movie. His pronunciation seemed to be a little clearer than it has been in some of his other movies. Marisa Tomei was good as the spoiled Lisa in the scenes she did have. She was believable in her role. Tim Curry was hilarious as Dr. Thornton Poole. Just hearing him talk made me giggle because of the accent he used and the proper way he spoke. His mannerisms were perfect for the character. His costume, the way he wore his hair, and the glasses, really added to his character. He looked and sounded like a proper, up tight man. Curry was perfect in the role and very funny. Most of the other actors didn’t have as many scenes, but they were all good in the scenes they did have.

Angelo was the main character in Oscar, so he was the most developed character. The viewer knew why Angelo was doing things because of what was learned about him during the movie. Since the movie took place during just a few hours in one day, he wasn’t developed as much as main characters in other movies. Just about all that was learned about Lisa in the movie was that she was unhappy living at home and she was willing to lie to be able to get married and leave. Sofia, Angelo’s wife and Lisa’s mother was only in a few scenes, so she wasn’t developed much at all. Oscar, the chauffeur, was fairly important to the plot. Lisa said she loved him and wanted to marry him. Angelo tried to track Oscar down, and found out that he had enlisted. Oscar only showed up once briefly at the end of the movie.

CHARACTERS

Angelo Provolone - He had been involved in illegal business for years. He promised his dying father that he would get out of crime and become a legitimate business man. He was trying really hard to keep his promise, but so many things kept going wrong. He did love his daughter, but he got very upset when she said she was going to have a baby. He was also disappointed that she wouldn’t marry Bruce Underwood. Angelo was good at dealing with problems, but he did get irritated at times. He could still be sneaky if needed. He did seem to be a loving father and husband.

Sofia - Angelo’s wife. She loved her husband and daughter. She did get aggravated with Angelo a few times.

Lisa - Angelo’s daughter. She was tired of living at home. She thought her father was controlling and she wanted to leave. She was devious and willing to lie to get out of her parent’s house. She was frustrated with her father, but she did love him.

Anthony Rossano - Angelo’s accountant. Anthony stole $50,000 from Angelo to give it as a wedding present to Theresa. Anthony had worked with Angelo for a long time, so he knew about the illegal things Angelo had been involved in. Anthony had taken care of the books for those things too. He was smart and good at his job. He was upset when he figured out that Angelo had lied to get the jewels. He could be just as sneaky as Angelo.

Theresa - A young woman who came to see Angelo. She was engaged to Anthony. She had lied and told Anthony that Angelo was her father. She was from a poorer family and wanted Anthony to think she came from a better family. Angelo was just the first man she thought of to say was her father. She seemed like a nice, caring woman.

Dr. Thornton Poole - He was the man that Angelo hired to teach him proper speech and enunciation. Dr. Poole was a very proper, up tight man. He seemed baffled by some of the things going on in the house at times.

Aldo, Connie, and Ace - They worked for Angelo. All three had worked for Angelo before he decided to go legitimate, and they still worked with him after that. They were having some trouble adapting to the change. They still called Angelo Boss all the time and carried guns. They didn’t always pay as much attention to what they were doing as they should have.

Oscar - He was Angelo’s chauffeur until Angelo fired him. He had been involved with Lisa before he was fired. Oscar enlisted after he was fired.

Oscar was a fun, entertaining, light hearted movie. I really enjoyed it. I’ve seen it a few times now and still like it. People looking for a fun movie to watch should check Oscar out. Fans of any of the actors may also enjoy this movie, though it was a different sort of movie for Stallone. Fans of his action movies may not like it since this movie is so different from those movies.






Recommended: Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12