Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
Cast
David Spade .... Dickie Roberts
Doris Roberts .... Peggy Roberts
Jon Lovitz .... Sidney Wernick
Alyssa Milano .... Cyndi
Craig Bierko .... George Finney
Directed by
Sam Weisman
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
4/10. You can tell it's September when Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is
the best movie that is released on its weekend. What's worse is that
it will probably be top at the box office. I don't go into a movie
produced by Happy Madison (Adam Sandler's production company) and
expect high-brow, witty humor. I expect a humorous, crude experience.
Dickie Roberts was neither. Most of the parts that could have been
hilarious turned out to be exactly what was seen in the trailers,
and, I hate to say this, but with more crude humor, then at least it
would have been cringe-inducing so I could do something with my
mouth, because for most of the time it was motionless.
In case you haven't seen the ads and commercials plastered
everywhere, Dickie Roberts stars David Spade (in an obvious show on
why comedians should stay comedians and not actors) as Dickie
Roberts, a former child star. Beginning and ending with something
like an "E! True Hollywood Story," which is forgotten and completely
unnecessary, he's washed up and plays in weekly poker games with
other child stars. However, he's dying for a comeback role, and one
in Rob Reiner's new film, and to research the role, he moves into a
family's home for a while to experience the childhood that he never
had. The family he moves into looks idyllic and perfect at first, but
parents Grace (Mary McCormack) and George (Craig Bierko) are having
troubles in their marriage, children Sam (Scott Terra) and Sally
(Jenna Boyd) are having troubles at school. Will this help Dickie
Roberts? Will he get the part in the movie? Hm�I don't know�.
In a comedy like this, acting isn't important. Nor is the plot. It's
all about the laughs, and Dickie Roberts barely had any. Sure, there
were a few chuckles, and more smiles, but nothing hilarious, fall-out-
of-your-seat type of laughter. If Chicago revived the movie musical,
and X-Men revived the comic-book movie, Dickie Roberts tried to
revive the pratfall comedy, unsuccessfully. If seeing Dickie crashing
into various objects makes you laugh out loud, then be my guest and
see this movie.
One setback was all of the subplots. Sam has a bully problem at
school, which is brought up about once, as is Sally's about
a "popular" girl in school. Although it could be said that it had
bonding between Dickie and the kids, it was completely unnecessary
and added to an already overlong length. There was enough of that in
the other scenes. Also, Sam has a crush on a new neighbor (after Edie
McClurg moves out, in one of the funniest scenes of the movie), it's
never brought up again after the scene shown in the commercials (with
Sam and Dickie dancing on stilts�hilarious?), and the girl, Barbie
(Ambyr Childers), has the worst acting this year, and possibly of all
time. Speaking of acting, Spade, when it came to the obligatory
emotional, message-ridden theme (which was too hokey and force-fed),
he actually did a little better than I thought he would do, but he
isn't anything that would be considered actual actor-quality acting.
McCormack portrayed a mom like a mom, which was all that she needed
to do. However, Terra and Boyd often seemed like they were trying to
contain their laughter (which was odd, because it was never really
funny), and both came off flat.
Don't pay to see this movie in theaters. If you want to see the
funniest part of Dickie Roberts, see another movie and then sneak
into it for a few minutes during the end credits. It's the only
hilarious part of the movie.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language and drug references.
Running time: 99 minutes
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