Directed By Peter Farrelly

Starring – Zac Efron, John Cena, Andrew Santino

The Plot – When three childhood best friends pull a prank that goes wrong, they invent the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to get them out of trouble. Twenty years after creating this “friend”, Dean (Efron), JT (Santino), and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) still use the nonexistent Ricky as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet the fabled Mr. Stanicky, the guilty trio decide to hire washed-up actor and raunchy celebrity impersonator “Rock Hard” Rod (John Cena) to bring him to life. But when Rod takes his role of a lifetime too far, they begin to wish they’d never invented Ricky in the first place.

Rated R for sexual material, adult language throughout and some drug content

Ricky Stanicky – Official Trailer | Prime Video (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Unsurprisingly, Cena rises to the occasion once more as the film’s titular protagonist, taking the floundering material and overwhelming humility of the character and embracing it with the kind of faithful commitment that actually produces laughs from his sternly stoic demeanor. That’s not to say that “Ricky Stanicky” is a legitimately great comedy, nor anywhere on the scale of Farrelly’s all-time classics like “There’s Something About Mary”, “Dumb and Dumber” or “Kingpin”, just that it serves as another meaningful vehicle for Cena, who at this stage in his career seems like the proverbial rainmaker to take any crude comedy and turn it into something serviceable, as a result of the unfiltered energy and adventurous approach that he takes towards eliciting every character. Because of such, Ricky does feel unique from other goofballs that Cena has performed under, with a cunning intelligence that always has the character in the perfect place at the perfect time, but also in ways that make the character feel larger than life to the established world within the film, cementing him easily as the film’s biggest highlight. Aside from Cena, I also found the dynamic of the trio of friends played by Efron, Santino and Fowler to be every bit believable in exulted chemistry as it was fruitful for the mountain of lies that they’ve produced among a lifetime of execuses to their families and significant others. They’re certainly not enlightening or redeemable characters, by any stretch of the imagination, but they seamlessly emulate the extent of their debaucherous histories with one another, elicitng a connection in banter and endless riffing between them that transcends their friendship into something practically familial, all the while serving as the driving force to the narrative that takes us through so many unpredictably unfiltered situations. Lastly, while the film’s material is anything but morally structured or sound, there is an evolving message towards the perils of lying that not only comes to fruition in the pressures of this group of friends keeping up with so many consistencies to their stories, but also confronting ones true opportunities for second chances, which like other Farrelly comedies, does supplant an underlining element of heart to the otherwise crudely obnoxious proceedings. It’s not attained naturally in ways that seamlessly transition the tone of the film between respective tonal halves, but it does lead to an endearing climax that transforms the moral identities of each of its characters, serving as a case of dual identities for other characters, but this time in ways that drives each of them to reinvent themselves for the lives they choose to live.

NEGATIVES

Farrelly sadly hasn’t been the same kind of comedic firestorm since the 90’s, and “Ricky Stanicky” is a good representation of why, beginning with the one-dimensional consistency of the material that grows stale and predictable by the film’s fifteen minute mark. Not that the gags themselves are anything remotely creative or memorable to what Peter channels, but the juvenile air pertaining to these adult type character outlines makes them all the more uncomfortable, with frat-type, upper-class douchebags serving as the protagonists that we’re unfortunately saddled with, throughout the duration of this nearly two hour movie. The run time in itself is an even bigger issue, as prolonged scenes and sequences help to pad out 109 minutes of shallow storytelling to the proceedings, resulting in strained pacing particularly during the film’s second act, that feels every bit the weight of its wear. Two scenes pertain to this especially, with one at a child’s bris, and another at the work offices of Efron and Santino’s respective characters, with each of them easily eviscerating ten minutes or more to the flow of the storytelling, with nothing vital or progressing of the plot attained to either of their meandering. In a sense, it feels like Farrelly had this idea of a plot, with about twenty minutes of material to bring it to life, but no clue of how to fill the downtime in between these vital moments, and that in turn is the loudest problem to “Ricky Stanicky”, as it fails to ever justify the extent of its existence with anything memorable or discerning from the characters, resulting in another content filling installment to the endless list of streaming services, which will easily and digestibly reach its expiration date only a mere weeks after it releases. Aside from this, despite my previous acclaim for the chemistry of the movie’s main trio, I found Efron to actually be sleeping through his performance of Dean, with none of the charisma, energy or cadence to his characters that have made him so much more than just another pretty face. Coming off of his career-best performance in “The Iron Claw” makes his work here feel as obviously inferior as any two film comparison that Efron has endured throughout his inconsistent career, but I think the bigger issue pertains to Farrelly’s commitment to ground our trio of protagonists as the straight men to Cena’s overhanging mayhem, and it leaves each of them (Particularly Efron), searching for any kind of material to capably stand out. In fact, there’s an overwhelming convenience factor towards a film that requires so many of its supporting characters to be brainless idiots, especially for their incapabilities to see through logical inconsistencies that a reasonable person could sniff out, and considering I’m not someone who can easily spot moments throughout an engagement where a character could’ve logically been foiled, I found this film constantly insulting towards the intelligence of its audience, requiring a complete suspension of disbelief that is far greater than the idiots within the contextual world depicted, who actually believe so much from a character who none of them have actually ever met. Finally, I legitimately felt that the script did one thing well in establishing so many conflicts and stakes for itself that I couldn’t wait for the big blow-off in reveal, but it comes and goes with as much relevancy and impact as that of rain sprinkles, leading to more of the aforementioned convenience factors that never even remotely threaten these characters’ peaceful existence. Aside from the elements of heart that I previously mentioned about Farrelly’s tonal transition, the conflicts themselves are resolved effortlessly in ways that never challenge or compromise audience expectations towards a happy ending, resulting in a predictably bland and forgettable exercise in futility, with no lasting impression to the previous 109 minute investment, even seconds after concluding it.

OVERALL
“Ricky Stanicky” is a disappointing return to the comedy genre for Peter Farrelly, whose crudely obnoxious material and thinly written characterization leaves it on the forgettable side of a career filled with bangers. Though the film fittingly serves as an effective vehicle once more for Cena’s impactful presence and comedic timing, the storytelling surrounding him is best left forgotten, especially in the fold of Amazon’s ever-increasing expansive library of content.

My Grade: 4/10 or D-