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Ricky Stanicky begins as three childhood friends play a prank on Halloween, 1999, partly setting fire to a house, owned by individuals who never give out sweets. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan, but they put the blame on the titular, fake character. Somehow, the dimwitted cops believe this. Must be Greater Manchester Police.
Fast-forward to the present day, the lads have grown up and for one, Dean (Zac Efron – The Iron Claw), wife Erin (Lex Scott Davis) is a journalist and a whizz in the kitchen, but she wants to be noticed as a ‘hero of the week’, as shown on Breakfast TV. The only way to do that, is to secure an item that’ll win over the viewers, which certainly isn’t filming a duck that’s refusing to leave the golf course.
However, one day, Dean gets a call, and is still spinning the myth about the man, this time telling everyone – including Erin – that Ricky has cancer, in a scene where actor Andrew Santino (as JT) accidentally looks at the camera, twice! (no time for reshoots?)
Really, the trip is just an excuse to go to a pop concert, but even as a kid, it would be a quickly-debunked lie.
It’s amusing when they ask for vodka at a bar, JT asking if they have organic vodka, only receiving a blank look in return. But it’s there when they bump into ‘Rock Hard Ron’ (John Cena – Fast X), who makes a living singing saucy songs about onanism, later leading to Cena wearing a Devo hat, singing Whip It, which is easily the best part of this film, and I would like a whole song of that, since while we don’t get that here, it must’ve been filmed! However, when he dresses as Britney Spears in the ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ era, I had to wipe my eyes out with bleach… (don’t try that at home!)
But they need to get back since JT’s better half, Susan (Anja Savcic), is about to give birth and is 6 weeks early. Ultimately, they end up in quite a bind over this, so actually NEED Ricky Stanicky to turn up in real life… enter Rod… as if you hadn’t guessed from the picture atop this review that Cena would be stepping in.
Will anyone see through the charade? Does a Pope defacate in the woods?
As a film, Ricky Stanicky shoots most of its bolts by the time it reaches the one-hour mark, and obviously no spoilers (even though this does show up in the trailer), but it’s safe to say that as it heads into its second half, this overlong comedy falls into the trap of relying on tropes we’ve seen before in other films, so there’s nothing original to come at that point.
However, he Cena’s character does have good taste with Paula Cole’s Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? as his ringtone. Not sure how that song popped into my head the other day, especially since it’s almost 30 years old, and now it’s turning up here, too.
Overall, Ricky Stanicky is fairly amusing for its duration – albeit with only a couple of big laughs, but it does go on too long, and if it hadn’t been created, you wouldn’t be screaming at them to invent it. And somehow, this film has SIX writers! What were they doing all this time?!
As an aside, I did spot a goof in that opening scene, since one of them tries to put out the ‘poo-bomb’ planted outside the front door, clearly forgetting that it’s full of… yep. In further parts of that scene, there’s not a single hint to effluent on any of their clothes, nor the shoes of the lad who stamps on it.
There’s also a brief something during the end credits. I’ll avoid spoilers, but if you don’t want to know at all, don’t click on the next bit.
Ricky Stanicky is on Prime Video from Thursday March 7th, but the film isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 114 minutes
Release date: March 7th 2024
Studio: Prime Video
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Rating: 4/10
Director: Peter Farrelly
Producers: Paul Currie, Michael De Luca, John Jacobs, Thorsten Schumacher
Screenplay: Jeffrey Bushell, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman, Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, Mike Cerrone
Music: Dave Palmer
Cast:
Dean: Zac Efron
JT: Andrew Santino
Wes: Jermaine Fowler
Ricky Stanicky (Rod): John Cena
Erin: Lex Scott Davis
Susan: Anja Savcic
Summerhayes: William H Macy
Miriam Summerhayes: Jane Badler
Carly: Apple Farrelly
Mimi Jacobs: Marta Kaczmarek
Ginny Hoffman: Francesca Waters
Glazed Dates: Charlie Torr
Gary Polisner: Jackson Tozer
Barry the Bartender: Bob Farrelly
Big Ben: Nathan Jones
Little Lenny: Jasper Bagg
Mrs. Levine: Debra Lawrance
Leona: Heather Mitchell
Keith: Daniel Monks
Rod’s Audio Engineer: Allan Lim
Rabbi Greenberg: Jeff Ross
Cheese Puffs: Sloan Fischer
Young Dean: Riley Stiles
Young JT: Oscar Wilson
Young Wes: Gaius Nolan
Himself: Stan Grant
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.