Movie Review: Ricky Stanicky

To call writer / director Peter Farrelly’s output uneven is perhaps being generous. After debuting (along with his brother Bobby) with the solidly successful run of 90’s comedies Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, and There’s Something About Mary, his career post 2000 has been largely known for mediocrity. And yes, that includes 2018’s Oscar-winning Green Book. With a name like Ricky Stanicky, hopes shouldn’t be high for his latest movie, a feeling only reaffirmed by the cheap-looking animated opening titles, often a sign that a viewer is in for a less-than-memorable experience. Luckily things do eventually improve, though not as much as one would hope.

Dean (Zac Efron), Wes (Jermaine Fowler), and JT (Andrew Santino) have been friends since childhood. When they were kids they pulled a prank on a neighbor that misfired badly and to avoid trouble framed another kid named Ricky Stanicky, who doesn’t exist. As a result of how well the ruse worked, they continue to blame him for all sorts of things over the ensuing two decades, developing an entire life story for him along the way that they keep track of in their “Ricky Bible”. That it has worked so well for so long as they grow up, get partnered and married, take on careers in finance, and even start families of their own, all with no one near them really questioning this “best friend” who no one else has ever met strains credulity, but there have been hit comedies about magical mannequins and body swapping (repeatedly) so, whatever.

One day, as Dean and his girlfriend Erin (Lex Scott Davis) are setting up a baby shower for JT and his wife Susan (Anja Savcic), they use Ricky once again as an excuse to meet up with Wes and head to see DJ Marc Rebillet in Atlantic City. After the show, they encounter Rock-Hard Rod (John Cena), a wannabe actor who headlines a show at a dive bar where he performs parodies of hit songs in which the lyrics are changed to revolve around masturbation, the examples of which prove a rather mixed bag. When JT’s wife goes into labor 6 weeks early, the trio are forced to rush back home, where their families begin pressuring them to finally introduce Ricky to everyone, and so they agree that he will come to the new baby’s Bris that weekend. With nowhere to turn, Dean calls up Rod and hires him to play Ricky for the day.

Rod proves to be unexpectedly good at being Ricky and watching him fake his way through the party is one of the movie’s best sequences. Cena’s performance brings the story to life at a point when it was beginning to feel like a slog as he once again exhibits a strong comedic deftness. There are a few other gags that elicit solid laughs afterwards, as “Ricky” becomes a larger and larger part of the group’s lives, especially in his interactions with JT and Dean’s boss Summerhayes (a game William H. Macy). The rest of the cast does fine with what they’re given, but the core trio of friends don’t ever really exhibit a convincing chemistry with each other and are written in a way that makes them challenging to like. The entire movie should have probably been trimmed by 15 or 20 minutes, and the lazy and unearned attempt at an emotional finale reworked, but there are worse ways to kill a couple hours. ★★