'Ricky Stanicky' review: Not even John Cena can save this bottom-of-the-barrel bro comedy | 24S9U43 | 2024-03-08 10:08:01
When Ricky Stanicky hits you with an opening joke a few canine boner, you understand you are in for something dumber than dumb. Whether or not it's the enjoyable sort of dumb — assume Stepbrothers or The Hangover — or the excruciating sort — assume, lately, of Argylle — all hangs in the stability of what comes subsequent.
Unfortunately, what comes next in Ricky Stanicky is a painfully unfunny barrage of bits scraped from the underside of the bro comedy barrel. Poop, circumcisions, ill-timed Okay-holes, masturbation — all lowbrow joke parts that might be humorous given the right context and set-up, yet all of which crash and burn on this lifeless nightmare. The only saving grace is a deeply committed John Cena, however not even he can wring constant enjoyment from this lackluster materials.
What's Ricky Stanicky about?
Ricky Stanicky revolves around a trio of lifelong besties — Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino), and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) — who concoct a pretend fourth greatest pal who can take the blame for all their dangerous conduct. His identify? Ricky Stanicky.
As years go by, Ricky Stanicky evolves from prank fall man into a surefire excuse for these three to get out of obligations they'd slightly not attend. The truth is, their scheming gets to the point that they end up putting more work into the lie than into probably anything in their lives. They build an elaborate Bible to maintain their Stanicky lore straight. They set up pretend social media accounts. They've a burner telephone just for Stanicky. The whole thing looks like probably the most unhinged story you can find on the Am I the Asshole? subreddit. "AITA for making up a pretend good friend, sustaining that lie for decades, then using that pretend pal's pretend cancer as an excuse to miss my own baby bathe?"
That is the plot point that units all of Ricky Stanicky in movement, by the best way. JT skips out on his own child bathe to go to Atlantic City with Dean and Wes for a DJ set, claiming that Ricky's (made-up) most cancers has returned. But when JT's child is born whereas he is out of town and nobody is ready to attain him, his household needs solutions on what the actual cope with Ricky is. Does our trio come clear and hope for forgiveness? Nope. They dig in and rent Rock Onerous Rod (Cena), a performer who focuses on masturbation-themed music parodies, to play Ricky. Turns out Rod is far more convincing than Dean, JT, or Wes might ever have imagined, but their success comes again to chew them when he worms his approach further into their lives.
Ricky Stanicky's most important characters are the worst — and lifeless boring.
</div> Ricky Stanicky is not all that totally different from the numerous comedies about males who merely refuse to develop up behaving badly. However the trio at its core is so boring and so missing in chemistry that any attempts at humor fall woefully flat. For starters, it is onerous to see Dean, Wes, and particularly JT as as anything however psychotic. There's a line between silly "har har, boys might be boys" conduct and "you males have to go to jail, now" conduct, and Ricky Stanicky crosses it in its first five minutes. Once more, what do you imply you are scheming to get out of your personal child bathe? You simply shouldn't be a father! Or a husband, for that matter. All three of those characters' companions need to split.
Outdoors of their foremost unit, Dean, Wes, and JT wrestle to seek out any deeper character motivation. JT obsessively reads parenting recommendation in his preparation to be a father. (I've received a nugget of wisdom for him: Perhaps don't blow off your child bathe for a live performance?) Elsewhere, Dean does not need a household beyond his journalist girlfriend Erin (Lex Scott Davis), as he's nonetheless processing his darkish household history. Ricky Stanicky's third-act attempts to explore stated history are the most cost effective tactic to garner sympathy, and a reminder that Efron deserves far better material post-The Iron Claw. Lastly, there's Wes, whose entire character is "gay stoner slacker." He could be the closest the group has to a conscience, however his few attempts at interiority are shunted apart for extra circumcision jokes. His relationship with boyfriend Keith (Daniel Monks) — the one queer relationship in the film — additionally gets the least airtime, feeling more like an afterthought.
Worst of all, Efron, Santino, and Fowler have next to no chemistry. Scenes between them suffocate beneath lifeless air, dragging us deeper into a buddy-less buddy comedy purgatory. I do not need to hear anyone complain about three-hour long films ever once more, because Ricky Stanicky's one-hour-and-48-minute-long runtime felt longer than Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon combined.
At the least John Cena commits.
</div> If there's something to like about Ricky Stanicky, it's Cena's performance as Rod/Ricky. There isn't any denying he is a gifted comedian: He is already proven his chops (particularly within the bodily performance department) in tasks like Blockers and Peacemaker. Here, though, he faces the extra daunting challenge of lifting some really ghastly material to serviceable standards.
To his credit score, Cena does the perfect with what he is obtained. He absolutely hams it up in a montage of Rod's X-rated act, the place he dons Devo, Boy George, Billy Idol, and Britney Spears costumes to perform a collection of "jerk-off songs." The bit, like most of Ricky Stanicky's bits, overstays its welcome and reeks of desperation, however there's a allure to how Cena throws himself on the songs.
Rod's commitment to the character of Ricky can also be simply the funniest facet of the film. He treats his task prefer it's a SAG-affiliated shoot, goes full technique, and even gets to be a bit of a diva about his course of. General, he's much more fascinating to observe than the three losers who employed him, yet they're stuck bearing a lot of the emotional brunt of the film. It's notably embarrassing when Ricky Stanicky tries to take a redemptive, inspirational tack in the movie's last act. The film does not earn it, and the characters definitely don't earn it. The only people who've earned anything are the viewers, who deserve some sort of medal for sitting via what is already one of many worst comedies of 2024.
Ricky Stanicky hits Prime Video March 7.
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