Movie Review: 'Ricky Stanicky' Starring John Cena and Zac Efron

Ricky Stanicky (2024)

Directed by Peter Farrelly

Written by Jeff Bushell, Peter Farrelly, Pete Jones, Mike Cerrone, Brian Jarvis, James Lee Freeman

Starring John Cena, Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, William H. Macy

Release Date March 7th, 2024

Published March 8th, 2024

I am ashamed at how many times I laughed during Ricky Stanicky. I feel, because I am a high-minded professional film critic, that my palette should be more... sophisticated. Comedy should have the air of sophistication, the notion of being intelligent. It should have deeper meaning and larger goals beyond just getting a laugh. And yet, there are movies like Ricky Stanicky that wear their stupid on their sleeve and remain mildly irresistible.

Don't get me wrong, I don't love Ricky Stanicky. It's not always a winner. The film is deeply low brow and the plot mechanics are iffy at best. What works however are the performances of the main cast which work very hard, sweatily trying to make you laugh. That's certainly the case for star John Cena, the former pro wrestling champion who kicks his dignity to the wind and throws himself into a deeply meme-able performance, for better and for worse.

Ricky Stanicky is the name of a fictional character invented by three young boys to get them out of trouble. Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino), and Wes (J.T Fowler) have been friends since childhood and have always been troublemakers. They managed to get themselves out of just about any sticky situation by blaming their friend, Ricky Stanicky, a person they made up and whose persona kept them from getting charged with arson, after nearly lighting a house on fire.

So successful was the Ricky Stanicky ruse that the three friends kept using Ricky into adulthood. Now, Ricky is an excuse to get them out of the adult obligations they want to avoid. Thus, when the trio want to get out of J.T's wife's baby shower, unfortunately, Ricky's cancer has come back and they need to go visit him at the hospital in Albany. In reality, the trio got tickets to a concert in Atlantic City. These are terrible people.

While in A.C the trio meets Rock Hard Rod (John Cena), a sometimes actor and performer. Rod's... unique specialty is taking classic songs and changing the lyrics slightly to make the song about masturbation. In scenes that you must see for yourself, John Cena dresses as Billy Idol, Boy George, Peter Frampton, and Britney Spears in order to perform songs dedicated to his love for self-love. It's better than his previous gig but you will need to see that one for yourself in Ricky Stanicky.

When J.T's wife goes into labor and gives birth while the guys are gone, they need a bigger lie to cover their other lies. So, they call on Rod to become Ricky Stanicky and come to a party for the baby. They give Rod their 'bible,' a lengthy catalogue of the lies that Ricky has starred in over the years, and, going full method actor, Rod becomes Ricky, an ex-alcolic, bisexual, philanthropist, friend of Bono, environmentalist and cancer survivor. You name it, Ricky has done it and somehow, Rod is perfect at being Ricky.

The very obvious plot construction is a significant flaw of Ricky Stanicky. We know that the simplistic point here is that lying is bad. We know that at some point in the movie, the various Ricky Stanicky lies will be revealed and the ending will resolve with the truth coming out. Trust me, you will not be surprised or impressed with how Ricky Stanicky plays out this very obvious plot. That said, the journey toward this very obvious conclusion, is often quite funny, in the most idiotic, often offensive, and silly ways.

John Cena is the key to the movie. He has to be both awkward and off-putting and the most likable and capable person in every scene. Cena has to debase himself as few actors in movies are capable of and he has to stay likable while doing it. And I'll be damned, Cena mostly pulls it off. It's the innocence of Rod as he becomes Ricky that gets me. Rod falls in love with being this complicated, odd, made up person and the gusto and enthusiasm he brings to playing the character is so much fun.

The rest of the cast is a bit lazy. Everyone else appears to be playing out the string of this plot while Cena is dancing a mile a minute to make things funny. The film even gives Zac Efron's character a backstory involving childhood abuse that has no place in a movie that also has jokes about dogs having sex and numerous comical takes on masturbation. Efron is a good enough straight man, but the tonal shift from his backstory and his anger with Rod trying so desperately to remain Ricky, even after he's supposed to be finished with the role, is too much, it undermines the overall silliness of the main plot.

The makers of Ricky Stanicky want it both ways. They want to have genuine, heartfelt, consequential melodrama and a guy who sings songs about masturbation and the two sides are at war with each other throughout Ricky Stanicky. Had the film committed to just being broad, outlandish and gross, and not tried for genuine pathos and life lessons, it would perhaps be more satisfying, if more than a little offensive. The wishy washy, after school special message about how lying is bad, is somehow more childish than watching John Cena in a Peter Frampton cosplay turning Baby I Love Your Way into an anthem about jerking off.

In case you missed it, Ricky Stanicky is R-Rated and not for all audiences. It's available starting March 7th on Amazon Prime, free to all Prime subscribers.

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