What those who put down this wonderful musical comedy fail to understand is that it is a parody of My Fair Lady with genders reversed. Instead of a pompous professor challenged to turn a cockney low class flower vendor into a classy young lady here was have a C&W singer challenged to turn a "Noo Yawkuh" taxi cab driver into a successful C&W singer. Stallone indeed brilliantly parodied his Rocky character this time instead of a mediocre club fighter becoming a top contender he is a man of limited musical ability who must succeed at performing C&W music on stage for a live audience. It is indeed a great albeit under-rated film. Grade B? Perhaps but still fun to watch.

I loved this movie since I was a kid. I think people need to remove the sticks that are shoved way up their anus. I love seeing Sylvester Stallone in such a wacky role and he played it so well. It is a decent feel good movie and I find it extremely humorous. Dolly Parton is such a sweetheart and I have always loved her movies. The scene with the Chinese people in the cab was so cheesy it's hilarious. This movie simply does not get the credit it deserves. Even,if for some, it is laughter directed at poking fun, it is still funny. My favorite scene is the God awful angry guy singing about his woman killed by a tractor, man that was so awful it was hilarious!

This was on TV the other day. I always love a Pygmalion plot, but getting from here to there was kind of painful. I love Dolly Parton's voice, her appearance and whom she is as a person: SO pretty, so sweet and kind! I could listen to her sing forever! But an actress, she's not! Stallone seemed to be trying to be clever and funny, but he was just so goofy that I found him annoying. Maybe the problem was in the way the character was written? – but no – his facial expressions, his voice, his manner – they were all phony – and when he first showed Dolly how he "sings," it was so loud, unrealistic and silly, I felt embarrassed for him. The plot is contrived, and I kept saying to myself, "Well, they had to do THIS with the plot so THAT funny thing could happen." And Dolly's character, well, she's just Dolly playing a character in a movie. Again, the contrived plot makes her character do unnatural and inconsistent things. I was saying to myself, "Oh no, why are you doing THAT?!" all the time! Well, it IS a "feel good" movie, but in order to "feel good," you must be able to ignore the badly managed plot, poorly depicted characters and silly "acting."

I remember RHINESTONE's extremely short tenure in theaters when I was a teenager but never saw the film until it turned up unexpectedly on Country Music Television (CMT) earlier this week. I sat down expecting to laugh AT the movie, not WITH it, because on paper, the idea of Sylvester Stallone learning to become a country singer so that Dolly Parton can win a bet with her sleazy manager sounds like a train wreck of Biblical proportions. But y'know what? In spite of myself I found myself chuckling at the screwball humor in RHINESTONE. Stallone is not exactly known for his comedic stylings, but I have to give him credit, he gave it the old college try in his role as a mumble-mouthed NYC cabbie who tries hard to discover his inner redneck. Dolly Parton, well, she's Dolly Parton. She made quite a few movies in the late 70s and early 80s and though she may not be considered a great actress, she's light, funny, and easy on the eyes as well. Some of the priceless moments include Sly's fringed, sparkly stage wear (which wouldn't have looked out of place in the Blue Oyster Bar of "Police Academy" fame), Dolly punching out Tim Thomerson (Jack Deth would be horrified at how easily she took him out!), and Sly's race through the mean streets of 1984 Times Square on horseback to rescue Dolly from her manager's clutches. On the musical side, well, let's just say I doubt that the soundtrack album to RHINESTONE burned up the charts back in '84. Dolly can sing anything and make it sound good, so Sly should be grateful that she joins him on stage in the big finale to salvage his "performance" (and I use that term loosely). I doubt Sly Stallone looks back on this movie with much fondness, but considering that I was expecting a total cheese fest I was pleasantly surprised by this fluffy '80s comedy. They really don't make'em like this anymore.