PLOT: After decades of lying about a fake friend named Ricky Stanicky, who they use as a get-out-of-jail-free card, three buddies (Zac Efron, Andrew Santino and Jermaine Fowler) are caught in a lie and have to produce a real version of their imaginary friend to their families. They hired an Atlantic City low-life (John Cena) to pretend to be Stanicky, but he enjoys playing the part so much that he refuses to leave town.
REVIEW: For those who don’t know, for the last fourteen years, Ricky Stanicky was a red-hot script floating around Hollywood, with people as varied as Jim Carrey, James Franco, and Joaquin Phoenix set to play the lead role. Having placed on The Black List, the script by Jeff Bushell, Jason Decker, and David Occhino was in limbo for quite a while before Peter Farrelly and his frequent collaborators Pete Jones and Mike Cerrone took a stab at it, meaning the film now has no less than six credited writers. It marks Farrelly’s return to comedy after dipping into more serious fare with the Oscar-winning Green Book and The Greatest Beer Run Ever.
Like the comedies Farrelly made with his brother Bobby, Ricky Stanicky is unapologetically R-rated, but all the raunch hides a pretty mellow center, with this ultimately being as sugary sweet at its heart as movies like Stuck on You and Shallow Hal. While not as outrageously fun or rude as one might hope in this dire era for comedy, the film benefits tremendously from John Cena in the lead. He really goes all-out in his against-type casting, seemingly having a whale of a time as the likeable wannabe Stanicky.
While Cena has done comedy before (he was hilarious in Blockers), this is his first time carrying a comedy without anyone to really back him up. While Zac Efron is a co-lead, he’s the straight man to Cena’s lunacy. You have got to give Cena credit for really going all out here, with his character making a living as a lounge singer riffing on songs (he thinks) have a masturbation theme. If you’ve ever wanted to see Cena dressed up as a member of Devo singing “Whip It” or donning Brittany Spears’ iconic “Hit Me Baby One More Time” look, this is the film for you.
It’s too bad that Ricky Stanicky, while amusing, never really rises to the level of Cena’s performance. He’s giving an A+ effort in a movie that never really gets beyond the B-minus level due to its reluctance to really get edgy. Sure, it’s R-rated, but an R-rating in 2024 isn’t like it was in the nineties or early 2000s, so nothing is particularly transgressive. It’s all very safe.
Yet, Cena makes the movie worth watching, as he gives his character some real pathos, like Jim Carrey used to when he was making movies with the Farrellys. You get the sense that Ricky just wants a friend at the end of the day, making him a bit of a bittersweet creation. While Efron is fine as the movie’s straight man, he doesn’t give the part as much depth as one might hope, with him coming off as more of a lying creep than probably intended by the filmmakers. The same goes for Andrew Santino’s character, who comes off as an abusive jerk for most of the running time given that he constantly puts down Cena’s character, who the audience has grown to love by this point. Of the trio of friends who invented Stanicky, the only one who really conveys any depth is Jermaine Fowler, the gay friend who’d rather fess up to his lies than continue the charade. Of course, he’s the one with the least screen time. As much as I like Efron (he deserved an Oscar nod for The Iron Claw), he’s dull here and probably should have only been in the film were he himself playing the Stanicky role (I’m sure he would have nailed it even if it’s hard to think of anyone other than Cena).
While Ricky Stanicky is nowhere near as funny as I hoped it would be, I still had a decent enough time with it. Again, Cena really is great in the role, and it also has a fun supporting part for William H. Macy as the insecure boss of Efron and Santino’s characters. Given that it’s a streaming release for Amazon, it’s worth throwing on to appreciate Cena channelling Carrey in what’s legitimately a great comedic performance. I wish the rest of the movie was as funny as he is, as whenever he’s offscreen, you can’t help but zone out.
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