I went into Ricky Stanicky with an open mind but ultimately low expectations. Comedy movies just haven't been hitting the same as they used to, you know?
Well, I thought I would stop watching about 20 minutes in, but kept going through because it grabbed my interest, once John Cena's character comes on screen though, I was fully sold and realized I'd be watching the movie all the way through, and I'm glad I did.
Ricky Stanicky feels like a return to form for comedy movies, I would have seen this in theaters and likely invited friends to join me. It isn't perfect by any means and it requires you to take leaps of logical faith at times, but to me, comedy movies almost require a component of that, the best comedy movies for me are always just absurd and unlikely, like Joe Dirt. Maybe that's why I love this so much, there are parallels of a loveable loser doing the impossible with a pure heart.
The core friend group is made of promising actors as well who do a good job, Zac Efron has a great history of solid comedy films, Jermaine Fowler was awesome in The Blackening, and Andrew Santino has a few solid comedic roles as well.
However, the movie is really sold through Ricky/Rod's commitment and likability, when John Cena is on the screen, I'm locked in and typically laughing the hardest.
John Cena's performance is a knock out for me. He's funny, he's interesting, he's admirable in certain ways, but he's so damn likable as Ricky Stanicky that I genuinely couldn't help but side with him despite all the red flags and the lunacy of the situation.
The confrontation scene between him and Dean had me wondering how I would react in this absurd situation, I gave Dean a lot of flack during the scene, but I can't imagine reacting differently and to me that spoke volumes to Ricky for me.
The humor is crass and gross at times while other times it'll surprise you with a joke that has a well made point.
At the end of the day, I can truly say if I had seen this at 12, it probably would have been my favorite movie at the time and one I watched throughout the years. It is one I will probably pick up again, but only time will tell on that one.