JUST BE FUNNY: OSCAR, SOAPDISH
Farce is pretty difficult to do, and admittedly, Landis sometimes lets the plot overwhelm him (I could have done without that suitcase). But generally, he lets things stay on course. And the cast, for the most part, is up to it. Tomei is good as the strong-willed daughter, and her scenes with Tim Curry (as Snaps' linguistics teacher, who falls in love with Lisa) are sweet. Chazz Palminteri is hysterical as Snaps' dim-witted henchman Connie (Peter Riegert is solid as Aldo, the other henchman). And Martin Ferrero and Harry Shearer are very funny as the Finucci brothers, who want nothing more than to make Snaps a suit, but aren't able to. But Stallone keeps this centered. He does mug a few times, but most of the time, he has the sense to play the straight man and let either the other actors, or the situation, play itself out. All in all, OSCAR is a pleasant way to kill time.
If you thought OSCAR was complicated, try SOAPDISH. As the title suggests, it's set in the world of soap operas, and you need to be a fan, I would think, to follow this plot - at the very least, you need a road map. And Hoffman and writers Robert Harling and Andrew Bergman (more on them later) don't maintain a consistent tone. But again, I laughed an awful lot.
Sally Field, who's also not the first person you think for comedy like this, is Celeste, the star of the long-running soap "The Sun Also Sets." She's also a multiple daytime Emmy winner, as the film opens with her accepting another award for Best Actress (unfortunately, one of the few comic opportunities this movie misses is not having Field send up her own infamous "You like me!" Oscar acceptance speech). However, things are not as rosy as they seem. The ratings for the show are down, and Edwards (Garry Marshall), the executive in charge of the show, is worried things aren't peppy enough. Montana (Cathy Moriarty), a supporting actress, wants the starring role, and promises David (Robert Downey Jr.), the executive producer of the show, sex if he'll write out Celeste. Celeste does have Rose (Whoopi Goldberg), her writer, as a friend, but she's still feeling frazzled.
As if that weren't enough, two more complications set in. Lori (Elisabeth Shue), an aspiring actress, manages to sneak on the set (Carrie Fisher has a funny cameo as the
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