Michele Massa's blog

The Movie:

One of the more recognizable Saturday Night Live alumni, David Spade has had a pretty hit or miss track record since leaving that show and taking on a movie career (in addition to a role on Just Shoot Me, in which I thought he was really funny). His work with Chris Farley in movies like Black Sheep were pretty funny, but since Farley’s tragic passing, he’s been in flops like Joe Dirt and now, Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star

Spade plays the title role. His character is, naturally, a former child star who made it big with the catch phrase ‘Nucking Futs!’ on a seventies sitcom called The Glimmer Gang. Since that show ended, his career has kind of gone with it and when we meet up with him, he’s parking cars for a living while his agent, played by Jon Lovitz, does what he can to find him work.

Roberts finds out about a casting opportunity for the new Rob Reiner film and through the Encino Man himself, Brenden Frasier, sets up a meeting with Reiner who tells him that because he never had a childhood he’s almost inhuman and just not right for the part, despite fitting the profile perfectly from a physical perspective.

In order to prove Reiner wrong and show him that he is right for the part, Dickie sells the rights to his ‘tell all’ book and uses the money to hire a family to teach him what he never got to learn as a child. Initially the mother and two children of the family that takes on the job object, the father insists that they need the money and so they begrudgingly let Dickie into their home.

Of course, once he moves in and they get to know him, the movie ceases to be funny and lurches headfirst into the dreaded ‘feel good comedy’ genre, where it fizzles and slowly dies for the next sixty minutes or so.

It starts off well enough though, and the first thirty minutes or so work rather well. How much of that is due to the material the actors are working with is difficult to say though, because there is a new celebrity cameo happening every few minutes, whether if by Dickie in a Celebrity Boxing match in which he gets his ass handed to him on a platter by Emmanuel Lewis, or the scene where Alyssa Milano dumps him. Not to mention the poker match with that guy who played Screech on Saved By The Bell and that other guy who played Greg Brady on The Brady Bunch.

After that though, the movie falls apart and it gets way too sweet for it’s own good. Spade is at his best when his inner-bastard is let loose. When his sarcasm shines through, he’s a funny guy. Sadly, here we see a tamer, more sugary Spade, and unfortunately, the laughs slow down to a trickle.