Some ideas are better left on paper, in a pitch meeting film about three childhood friends who create their own imaginary friend that takes the fall for all their bad Deeds has a lot of potential in the realm of Comedy. However when it comes to the latest film from Amazon Studios, this is a film that sounded great on paper yet fumbled every step of the execution. 

Ricky Stanicky is a story about three friends who create their own myth of a kid named Ricky Stanicky after a Halloween prank leads to the boys accidentally setting their neighbor’s house on fire. The boys created a fake identity to take the fall and it actually works with the police. 20 years later, the trio continues to use Ricky as an excuse used to forgo all their life obligations.

Zack Efron who plays Dean is dating a journalist but doesn’t want to take his relationship more serious than it needs to be. JT and his wife Susan are about to have a baby shower, however he really doesn’t want to be around and Wes is basically just a gay Stoner who doesn’t have anything going on in his life but he wants to write a children’s book, take that as you will.

The men lie about Ricky having cancer so they can go on an impromptu trip to Atlantic City, however while the guys are partying up Susan goes into labor early which forces them to return home and miss the birth of their child. To protect themselves from the lies they’ve told over the last several years, they hire a failed actor named Rod (John Cena) to play the role of Ricky Stanicky. When Rod is too good at playing Ricky, the group is forced to think of a plan B as their lies can no longer be contained.

Ricky Stanicky is an idea that is stretched out for a two hours. Fresh off of his humiliation ritual at the Academy Awards and once again the former pro wrestling star finds himself in a self-deprecating role played up for last laughs. Cena plays a failed actor who does masturbation cover songs in Atlanta City to make ends meet and when he’s not buming food and drinks off of bartenders, Cena plays the lowest of the low in a popular gambling town. 

Once we get the payoff of the characters pulling off their big con, that isn’t much left to the story. the film slogs through 80 minutes of writers trying to figure out how to keep the movie going and still manages to go on about 30 minutes longer than it needs. Six credited screenwriters were needed to write and complete this film. There just isn’t a lot of meat and potatoes to this movie.

Zack Efron who takes a short break away from his more dramatic roles plays the straight man the John Cena’s over the top wackiness the film doesn’t require him to do too much which allows him to Coast through most of the movie. Andrew Santano plays a foul mouth irresponsible father who provides pretty much nothing else but a few F bombs along the way and Jermaine Fowler is in the movie for the sole purpose of marking up Amazon’s diversity and inclusion quota as he plays a gay man.

This film simply isn’t funny, at best this is a Saturday Night Live sketch that gets stretched out to a 2-hour runtime. Ricky Stanicky is a waste of multiple talents due to the sole fact that this film couldn’t find one person out of the six to write a film that at least gets a chuckle out of the audience.

1/5

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