Ricky Stanicky

For twenty long years, three childhood friends have used a nonexistent friend as an alibi for their immature behavior. After a scheduling mishap causes their spouses and partners to demand to finally meet this friend, the trio hire a washed-up actor to play the part. However, when the actor starts to take the role too seriously, the friends begin to wish they never invented their imaginary pal in the first place.

Ricky Stanicky is the latest film in the grand tradition of such beloved classics as Uncle Buck, Encino Man, Drop Dead Fred, Son in Law, Harry and the Hendersons, Weird Science, and even My Blue Heaven (which, by the way, was based on the same book that Goodfellas was). These are films where the basic idea is some weird asshole shows up one day, shoves themselves into the middle of some “normal” people’s lives, and then, through the power of their weird asshole-ness, teaches the “normal” people how to be be better, happier, to fully embrace their lives, and going forward, to live a life that is more honest with themselves, their loved ones, and the world around them, all while the weird asshole ends up finding themselves in the middle of the brand new family they so deperately needed.

My goodness, how touching, right? It’s the story of people learning a little bit about themselves… and each other.

So, Ricky Stanicky is the made-up-on-the-fly name of the imaginary scapegoat that the three friends created out of necessity as kids, after a “bag of poop lit on fire on a porch” prank goes pear-shaped. Ever since then, the trio have used the name to take the blame for all of their hijinks and bad decisions. Even as adults, they still use the name, backed up by a fake phone and instagram account, as a way to get out of family obligations, all while carefully chronicaling the many, many lies they’ve told in a three-ring binder that details who Ricky is, what he does for a living, the plethora of tragic events that have happened to him, and what the current issues are that are being used as an excuse for the three of them to be able to take off together… usually so they can go do something fun, like go to a game, or a concert, or just to generally fuck off somewhere and act the fool together.

In short… they’re big time selfish assholes, and manipulative serial liars.

And much like the tragic son of Daedalus, they eventually go too far with their nonsense, their lies get too deep and too complicated, and they find themselves trapped as their families finally manage to corner them, and get them to agree to bring their very best old friend, that infamous but reformed reprobate turned non-profit global activist, Ricky Stanicky, to an upcoming family function.

Seeing no other way out, other than admitting the truth, and desperate to keep the ruse going, they hire a down-and-out alcoholic actor from Atlantic City, a man with a one-man show that is just him cosplaying as famous musicians while singing parody versions of their songs with the lyrics switched to masturbation references, to play the part of Ricky, and at that point… hilarity ensues.

In theory, at least.

Ricky then shoves himself into the middle of their “normal” lives, and through the power of his weird asshole-ness, teaches these “normal” people how to be be better, happier, to fully embrace their lives, and going forward, to also live a life that is more honest with themselves, their loved ones, and the world around them, all while Ricky himself finds himself in the middle of the brand new family he so deperately needs.

The story is exactly what you expect, but probably more poorly executed than you would have preferred to sit through.

Like all big studio comedies now, the third act, where the ruse is uncovered, feelings are hurt, and heartfelt public admissions of guilt are made, just for everyting to work out surpisingly well in the end, is an uneven and nonsensical mess. Gone are the days when R-rated studio comedies were derived from fully written scripts, based on funny ideas, before filming even started. Lost now forever, is the time when films like this were made from scripts with a complete narrative arc, that also allowed for the funny people cast as the script’s characters to stretch and improvise a bit, while still keeping them all to a semblance of a story.

Six people wrote this script. Six.

I can’t even imagine what the process was.

The sadly all too common big tip off that this ugly Frankenstein of a comedy was awkwardly welded together out of the random pieces of various previous versions of the script during the Post-Production process is that it’s often dominated by strange subplots centered on a moment that may have seemed wild and crazy when presented out of context in a trailer, but within the film itself, is just a lot of set-up that goes nowhere, moments like the whole “duck sitting on a golf ball” thing. This film is full of that kind of thing, a lot of “wild” and “zany” moments that aren’t actually “wild” or “zany” at all, all of which go… basically nowhere. Why did this just happen? Why is it here? How is this funny?

And that’s not even talking about the bits that could be seen as misogynistic or racist, or at the very least, problematic.

The most unsurprising part was seeing in the credits that one of the six writers was Peter Farrelly, someone who once dominated Hollywood due to a handful of genuinely funny moments, mostly due to Jim Carrey, and otherwise made a bunch of garbage. Ricky Stanicky aspires to be included with those halcyon, decades-past “glory” days, but with its tired rehash of the same old frat boy butthole-based humor, and the fact that it otherwise has nothing particularly clever or insightful to say, it proves to be unequl to even that meager task, ending up as just a pale shadow of better films that were actually mostly terrible, which is sad.

To their credit, Efron and Cena are talented and funny, and I’d be interested in seeing them together in something else. I’ve always wanted Seth Rogen and Zac Efron play Blue Beetle and Booster Gold in a DC comics buddy comedy action movie, and I think they’d fit in great with Cena’s Peacemaker end of the DC film and TV adaptations, so… who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky there someday.

But otherwise, the pair can only do so much with such garbage. They both go all in on their respective roles, both for the pratfalls and the emotions, Cena especially, but in the end, lipstick on a pig and all that jazz, y’know?

I do really enjoy John Cena, the man commits to a role, and he has a killer comedic timing, but in the end, much like Peter Farrely’s success, Ricky Stanicky is the kind of “comedy” that is best left forgotten.

Mostly because it’s not funny, and never really was.