Film Review – Ricky Stanicky (2024)

Here’s a question. Ever wished there was a film where you could witness John Cena as a crass lounge singer who primarily specialises in X-rated Rock’n’Roll, sings versions of Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Devo, and Britney Spears, and serenades dogs as they engage in some canine love? Or see Zac Efron having to help his pet dog from a brutal fight against a duck guarding a golf ball with its life? Well, then have we got the “comedy” film for you with the latest endeavour of the once great purveyor of laughs director Peter Farrelly which is two decades past its best-before date and should have been left in the dark room that has been holed up in for a decade.

Ricky Stanicky is a myth. Dreamt up by three friends – Dean (Zac Efron), Wes (Jermaine Fowler), and JT (Andrew Santino) – when they were young teens to help shift the blame from themselves when they got up to the usual teenage hijinks, Stanicky was their “get out of jail free” card that they have been using ever since. Now in their 30s, they still use the ruse to get out of adulting, but when they use it to miss the baby shower for JT’s expectant wife so they can attend a concert, the game might be up and they either have to come clean or fashion their fake friend from thin air. A chance encounter with out-of-work actor Rod (John Cena), however, might make that decision for them…

Mooted as a potential project for Jim Carrey back in 2013, Ricky Stanicky was written by Jeffrey Bushell and, back then, was considered so good that it was part of that year’s Black List, a yearly round-up of the best-unproduced scripts that are floating around Hollywood waiting to be made (for context, films including Argo, Spotlight and The Revenant have been part of it over the years). And, for the title character at least, you can see why Carrey especially was lured to it: playing an actor taking on the role of a lifetime to portray a fake person could have had hilarious consequences under his unique spell.

For ten years, it lay dormant and, perhaps now the film has been made, you can see why: ironic, given that if Farrelly had made it back in his heyday in the late 1990s into the 2000s when he and his brother Bobby were kings of the crude, indecent and gross-out nonsense, it might have struck a chord. But times have changed, and while Farrelly has branched out into more dramatic fare with the Oscar-winning Green Book in 2018 (yes, it’s still a shock), this type of comedy just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Audiences want, and deserve, more, and no doubt played into the decision to slip this one out onto streaming rather than in the theatrical space as, suffice it to say, it’s a stale, dull, and unoriginal comedy that should have been left to gently rot away somewhere.

There is a saving grace and that is John Cena, who is no Jim Carrey but has recently showcased his uniqueness in the comedic space. Anyone who has seen him in Peacemaker knows how funny he can be when he’s let loose. Ricky Stanicky is of a similar ilk, allowing Cena to fully embrace his larger-than-life persona to the max, revelling in the unhinged nature of the title character and bringing some remnants of life to an otherwise lifeless endeavour. What’s perhaps most jarring is Zac Efron: coming hot on the heels of his wondrous, career-redefining wrestler Kevin Von Erich in the brilliant The Iron Claw (still in cinemas as we type), you’d have thought he had learned the lessons from 2016’s Dirty Grandpa or his previous Farrelly collab, The Greatest Beer Run Ever. That fell ungracefully into streaming purgatory two years ago but, like Carrey before him, he appears to see something kindred in his rapport with the director. Unfortunately, like their sophomore effort together, it has arrived twenty years too late.

★★

On Prime Video from March 7th / Zac Efron, John Cena, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, Anja Savcic, William H. Macy / Dir: Peter Farrelly / Amazon MGM Studios / 15