Review of Rhinestone

I love Sylvester Stallone. I've always admired his tenacity when it comes to movies. He really did overcome some insurmountable obstacles to get where he is today on sheer work ethic & determination alone, but boy, oh, boy does this ever suck. I'll give Sly credit for willingly putting his Rocky image out there with the type of tomfoolery he was doing in this movie. It took guts for him to do this, but it's not exactly the wisest career decision he's made, and that's just for starters. Sly's character isn't exactly a charming fellow. He is supposed to be the underdog we can rally around and instead he's written as obnoxious and befuddling. His chemistry with Dolly isn't great. We don't really know what makes him tick. His character background isn't explored nearly enough. I realize it's a musical comedy, not Oscar material, but I had no reason to care about him. Stallone comes across as out of his element, despite that he tries his best and appears to be having a blast. At least it wasn't a listless performance, if not a very good one. Dolly Parton fares a bit better. She's lively, easy on the eyes, and her charm is so irresistible that she manages to overcome abhorrently awful writing. The whole plot is rather contrived as well. A bet between Dolly Parton and Rob Leibman (Jake & Freddy) to see who can develop a star in the making? That didn't fly with me. I could go on about the acres of terrible dialogue and the laughably dated outfits, but I won't.

Final Thoughts: When Sly lists it as a film he wished he had never done, you know it's bad. I got a couple of unintentional chuckles out of it, but a lot of pretty bad duets and plenty of groan inducing moments to go along with it. Since I'm such a huge Stallone fan, I always found it peculiar as to why I put this off for so long, despite its reputation. Now I know why. I'd avoid temptation if I were you, unless you're a huge Stallone fan. In that case you'll most likely succumb to the temptation like I did.

3.5/10