Film Review: ‘Ricky Stanicky’ Has Funny Moments and a Committed Cast But Lacks Enough Laughter to Pull You Through

The comedies of the Farrelly Brothers are of a time, to be sure, with the highlight almost certainly being There’s Something About Mary. When Peter Farrelly went to helm Green Book solo, he won an Oscar. Following that up with The Greatest Beer Run Ever was an attempt to merge some of his higher and lower minded impulses. It also introduced him to Zac Efron. Now, with a return to the world of raunchy comedies, he’s taken Efron along for the ride. Despite lots of talent involved, the result is Ricky Stanicky, which mixes some occasional successful comedy with long stretches of near boredom. It’s hard to label this film as anything other than a misfire.

Ricky Stanicky is the type of movie we used to get more often, but when they were good, they were much better than this. Now, the flick is better than the worst of the lot, but think back to the 1990s and how awful some of the raunchy comedies that didn’t work were. Exactly. This rises about that dreck, but without managing to leave much of an impression along the way.

Best friends Dean (Efron), JT (Andrew Santino), and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) have been together since childhood. It was there that they invented Ricky Stanicky, a fourth friend who they could blame for any trouble they got into. That has continued into adulthood, where the trio uses him as an excuse to get out of anything they don’t want to do with their partners, or just when they want to sneak away for some fun. By keeping a bible of what they have Ricky get into, as well as by following other rules, they’ve succeeded at this for some time. However, when JT’s wife goes into labor while they’re out partying, he misses the birth of his son. This threatens their plans, especially when they’re told to present Ricky at the upcoming bris. Dean, almost on a lark, comes up with a plan, one that might just save the day.

While out partying, before their spot got blown up, they ran into an actor named Rod (John Cena), who all but begged them to come see his dirty song parody show. They mostly blow him off, but Dean felt a bit bad for him. So, he decides to hire Rod to play Ricky. Rod is an addict and definitely has a screw loose, but when he arrives, he’s studied how to be Ricky from their bible, making an impression during the ceremony. In fact, he’s made such an impression on everyone, as well as on himself, that he has no plans to give up the identity. Hilarity ensues?

I do think the cast does their best with the lackluster material. John Cena goes all-in with Ricky, especially when we see him as “Rock Hard” Rod doing his act. It’s not funny, but he’s undoubtedly committed. Zac Efron fares the best of the lot, trying to find dimension to his leader of the pack. He’s fine, while Jermaine Fowler and Andrew Santino just get given sidekick type roles. They have decent chemistry, but they’re not anything near well-rounded. Supporting players include William H. Macy, Jeff Ross, Anja Savcic, Lex Scott Davis, and more.

Filmmaker Peter Farrelly returns to broad comedy here, directing a screenplay he wrote with a whole chorus line of folks. Seriously, Farrelly shares credits with Jeffrey Bushell, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman, Pete Jones, and Mike Cerrone, each of whom have screenplay by and screen story by credits, alongside based on a story by credits for David Occhino and Jason Decker. That’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen to make some fast food. The direction is fairly indifferent and workmanlike, and while the script has some funny lines, there’s also a lot of jokes that don’t land. The premise, as well as the execution, feels taken out of the 90’s era of raunchy comedy, just without much in the way of updates. It leads to some laughs, for sure, but not nearly enough.

Ricky Stanicky had me chuckling enough that it can’t be labeled a bad movie, but it’s not especially a good one, either. There’s a missed opportunity here, especially given some of the talent involved, to make a real riot of a comedy. Instead, the film just barely tries to get by. As passive entertainment on Prime Video this week, you could do worse, but in terms of actual cinematic choices, you can do a whole lot better.

SCORE: ★★1/2