At the beginning of “Ricky Stanicky,” our three protagonists find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Having decided to exact revenge on a house that doesn’t give out Halloween candy, Dean, Wes and JT leave the owners a smelly little doorstep delight – and by delight, I mean dog poop.
They also decide to set said dog poop on fire, which, of course, doesn’t go as well as originally planned. With the fire department on its way, the boys panic and leave a burned-up jacket with a fake name written on the collar to throw the cops off their scent – Ricky Stanicky. As the boys watch the authorities ponder over the identity of their made-up arson, JT breathlessly says: “I can’t believe that actually worked.”
Honestly? Me neither. Because 25 years later, the Ricky Stanicky bit is still alive and kicking for these childhood best friends. But unfortunately for the movie of the same name, the jig is up pretty quickly.
Directed by Peter Farrelly, “Ricky Stanicky” is a throwback to the R-rated comedies of the mid-2000s, singularly focused on the bad behavior of overgrown man children. But unlike the most successful versions of that type of film, “Ricky Stanicky” is a stiff, humorless drone of a film, lacking any sort of comic timing, tone or creativity.
As the movie goes on, Ricky evolves from a troublemaker to a do-gooder type. He’s no longer a way for Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino) and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) to get out of trouble, but rather an excuse for them to get away from their significant others and blow off some steam. If the three want to go to the Little League World Series, they tell everyone Ricky has invited them to help clean up a riverbank. If they want to go to a show out of town, they tell everyone Ricky’s cancer has come back and they have to go visit him. Has anyone besides the three of them ever actually tried to meet Ricky, you ask? No, but that’s because his job tends to have him…
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