Before Judd Apatow monopolized the industry’s comedic movies focused on the depiction of teenage boys, Peter Farrelly set the standard for a different kind of comedy a decade or so ago. Movies featuring him and his brother Bobby were great, but did manage to combine sweetness with some unreasonable offensiveness as seen in “Dumb and Dumber” and “There’s Something About Mary”, then there was “Movie 43”, his solo’s one and only tragic mess. However, Farrelly lost his way and devoted himself mainly to television before taking on the Oscar-winning ‘Green Book’ and the dramatic Vietnam War-set ‘The Greatest Beer Run Ever.’ Now, he has gone back to making mediocre comedies about men for whom maturity is a fantasy, as in ‘Ricky Stanicky’.
‘Ricky Stanicky’ which I am saying is not a good film does not make you think we’re living in the 1990s or give you any pleasant reminiscences from those times. It basically is a poor copy of some mediocre comedy and has nothing new to offer. Farrelly is credited as co-writer of the screenplay along with five other writers and co-writers of the story, so it would be completely unfair to blame the film’s failure on just one person.
While that did not happen, this time Ricky Stanicky is not the character of the week at the movie’s start. No, to him, we return only when it is necessary to explain what his role is in a very interesting situation. He is a one-of-a-kind fusion of United States bravado and self-deprecating hospitality. Ricky Stanicky is an embarrassing creation: a mix of laughter and shame.
Ricky, throughout the years (and during the cartoon credit sequence) them, is the resident scapegoat for the trio’s numerous mischiefs and poor choices. As grown men, Dean, JT, and Wes still use Ricky as an excuse to leave their families, knowing fully well they are going off reacting to a different side of the world which is fun and is filled with sports, concerts, and much more. Finally, after enough sneaking around, their family wants to meet the reformed sinner, Ricky Stanicky. For appearances, the brownies cake walk to the sinner and meet a supposedly down on luck actor Rod who is going to pretend to be Ricky in front of their family. And then the craziness begins. At least, it comes after some interlude of jokes about women and racism.
“Ricky Stanicky” features a child-like naiveté that’s constantly not fun and is aimed at the usual “dead horse” comical cliches, low-brow cum routine jokes and random potential laughter. William H. Macy is seen only as Dean and JT’s boss since he has earned the right to spread subtle yet vulgar gestures reflective of the sexual desired during board room discussions.
Imagining this situation is quite funny, so lets assume Jeff Ross is a comic rabbi who gets high on k on some unfortunate circumstances and because of that fails to finish a bris that he was supposed to carry out. The director of ‘Green Book’ specifically made the only Black character in the cast, who was Wes, a jobless weedhead while white characters like Dean and JT talk about corporate jobs. This may be a source of humor for somebody, but I certainly am not one of them.
In their defense, Efron and Cena do not lose their cool and instead, work with the sh* t sandwich they have been handed. Efron impressively manages to make Dean likeable. Efron is the Dean that has the most runway to execute some emotional scenes and has a plan in mind. In the plot, we see him to be the victim as his alter ego Rod goes out as Ricky and pummels him and his friends. As the situation becomes more complicated, he watches as Rod’s girlfriend also evolves to make matters worse. It causes him to man up quite a bit, and Efron has this maturity that he plays out which can be found in some of Farrelly’s better comedies.
When it comes to Cena, he pours all of himself into the role of Rod, wiping the floor with the addiction distress symptoms and the awful impressions of well-known rock singers performing song parodies about cum in ‘Rough Night’ to really random and almost casual mentions of facts, stories, and people he met and worked with the Gina for the last 24 hours, like Senhor Engenheiro, where he helps Bono and beats cancer while touring the world. Sandwiched between all of this is what can be called a script. Cena incorporates it into himself asserting that he is more talented than probably everyone in this film, who manages to speak predisposed as if he is doing something completely serious while saying a bunch of silly things and performing silly actions.
To witness such ridiculousness as Cena believing that he is being chased by “hitmen” while he is dressed in a Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time” costume or the diva of Efron when he cannot manage to convince Rod to stop impersonating Ricky, there are other factors that make in any case watching any part for a while comfortable. This movie doesn’t possess the type of rhythm or timing that one hopes for. Anything can and usually is said or done in succession that would spoil the entire atmosphere or simply whenever a joke is made, it’ll be repeated again and again in hopes that the audience will find it funny the 10th time round. Overall: “Ricky Stanicky” is nothing to get excited about. It has some poor and average parts.
At its lowest point, it recollects one of the life lessons rarely taught – that a few childhood fantasies need to be forgotten forever.
for more movies like Ricky Stanicky on 123movies
