Ricky Stanicky

Ricky Stanicky could very well be one of my shortest reviews ever. It's a film I'd only heard of around a month ago (which I think is when the actual ad campaign for it started?) and much like that unimpressive push to get people to watch it, so too is the film rather unimpressive. 

Directed by Peter Farrelly, with a potentially dangerous comedic duo of Zac Efron and John Cena, Ricky Stanicky is a lighthearted, amusing, and juvenile comedy that gets some laughs but doesn't have much lasting power. 

The brightest shining light is John Cena as the made-up, titular character, as he proves he's game for most anything, including doing a bunch of masturbation-related song covers. Eventually however, even Cena's light gets dulled thanks to a predictable script that takes his silly alcoholic and makes him into a contributing member of society. 

Everyone else - except for a couple great scenes from William H. Macy - feels like they're sleepwalking through this one. And it pains me to say it, because I genuinely like Zac Efron, but probably no one more than him feels like he's phoning it in. It's particularly painful after such a tremendous performance in The Iron Claw, plus we know he can do comedy, so to see him border on boring in Ricky Stanicky makes one wonder why they spent the money on him in the first place. The script doesn't do Efron's character any favors either, providing him barely any comedic material to build from, so perhaps it's less his fault but yeah...not sure why someone as high profile as Efron is even in this other than to get star power. 

I'm probably being harsh on Ricky Stanicky because it feels like there was potentially a better, less lazy version of this film out there. As it serves now, it's not outright bad at all, but it's the background TV you have on while you make dinner some evening. It doesn't have staying power and, for most of its entirety, it feels like John Cena was the only one bringing some passion and effort to it all. 

Rapid Rath's Review Score | 5.5/10