Dickie Roberts (David Spade) is a former child actor who rose to fame playing the popular lead in 1970s sitcom The Glimmer Gang. Years later, Dickie's bizarre behavior and floundering career have made Dickie a punchline in Hollywood as he alternates between valet parking cars or taking humiliating appearances on low rent reality TV shows. Dickie hears of a new project from director Rob Reiner (playing himself) and jumps at the chance audition. While Reiner thinks Dickie fits the part well physically, Dickie's lack of a normal childhood or family makes Reiner hesitant to cast him. Dickie decides to sell his long gestating autobiography for a $30,000 advance which he uses for seed money to rent a family to live with for research. This leads Dickie to the Finney family, wherein patriarch George (Craig Bierko) has agreed to let Dickie live with them much to the annoyance of his wife Grace (Mary McCormack) and their two children Sam and Sally (Scott Terra and Jenna Boyd respectively) unprepared for the chaos Dickie brings with him.
Released in 2003, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star marks David Spade's second time headlining a feature film for Adam Sandler's Happy Madison following Joe Dirt. Critically speaking Dickie Roberts was seen as a marginal improvement over Joe Dirt but performed rather dismally where despite opening at number one it did so on one of the lowest box office days in September and quickly faded from theaters. Originally spawned from a rejected SNL sketch Spade and writer Fred Wolf wrote back in the 90s about a child star rampage that spoofed Silence of the Lands and would've featured Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin when he hosted SNL, Spade and Wolf attempted a number of times to revive the concept originally written as a much darker comedy which touched upon subject matter such as drug usage by former child actors. The concept was eventually made by Adam Sandler's Production Company Happy Madison and that's a warning sign that this concept will not live up to its promise. While the abrasive edge in the script is still there in the movie, it's unfortunately suffocated by the standard Happy Madison tropes that define far too many of their products.
The film's core concept from which the humor is derived can mostly be boiled down to Dickie acting like a child in this family as the family act uncomfortable with the arrangement while Dickie's eccentricities and casual profanity will seep into his routine. It's basically the same premise as another 2003 comedy (albeit one that was delayed until 2004) The Ben Affleck James Gandolfini vehicle Surviving Christmas where Ben Affleck's charact did the exact same thing, but was instead a lonely ad executive. I will say this for Dickie Roberts, despite using the exact same premise as Surviving Christmas, at the very least it tries to construct stronger internal logic to justify its premise than Surviving Christmas did. I actually do think there's scenes in the film that do get decent laughs in them such as a scene where Dickie frames the story of his sitcom's cancellation as a scary story and on occasion there are fleeting moments of character for Dickie that almost have resonance, but the movie all too often shoots itself in the foot because despite being about child stars who've grown up, it spends much of its time avoiding the subject and basically tap dancing around it.
Much like other Happy Madison films, the movie isn't directed like a movie and is directed more like a SNL sketch. The actors on display are all abrasive and annoying because the direction they've been given comedically speaking is to emphasizes silly speech patterns and just be loud because somehow that will make the material funny. While SNL has been and is a proving ground for comic talent, it has also resulted in a number of misfires because their delivery they used on SNL didn't transfer to feature films or narrative TV, and considering that the majority of SNL sketches are built upon this kind of delivery and that's what SNL has taught to its performers and they basically have to unlearn it to become serviceable actors it's nothing short of miraculous the level of quality SNL alums have had. The movie is so rich with comic potential and it just never comes out. Had this been allowed to be a darker comedy more in tone with something like Cable Guy or Death to Smoochy maybe it would've worked a bit better, but since it plays like a broad comedy with a very juvenile slant (not surprising as it's from the director of George of the Jungle) it feels like a mismatch of material and handler.
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star has a decent premise and a few inspired comic set pieces, but its unfortunately suffocated by overworn tropes that are more aggravating than funny and because it doesn't go as deep into the double edged sword of child stardom as it wants it's more focused on redundant slapstick and pratfalls than it is on building characters or lampooning the child stardom. If you want to see this concept done well then watch Bojack Horseman's take on this sort of thing as it's not afraid to dive into the uglier side of child stardom.
Released in 2003, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star marks David Spade's second time headlining a feature film for Adam Sandler's Happy Madison following Joe Dirt. Critically speaking Dickie Roberts was seen as a marginal improvement over Joe Dirt but performed rather dismally where despite opening at number one it did so on one of the lowest box office days in September and quickly faded from theaters. Originally spawned from a rejected SNL sketch Spade and writer Fred Wolf wrote back in the 90s about a child star rampage that spoofed Silence of the Lands and would've featured Home Alone actor Macaulay Culkin when he hosted SNL, Spade and Wolf attempted a number of times to revive the concept originally written as a much darker comedy which touched upon subject matter such as drug usage by former child actors. The concept was eventually made by Adam Sandler's Production Company Happy Madison and that's a warning sign that this concept will not live up to its promise. While the abrasive edge in the script is still there in the movie, it's unfortunately suffocated by the standard Happy Madison tropes that define far too many of their products.
The film's core concept from which the humor is derived can mostly be boiled down to Dickie acting like a child in this family as the family act uncomfortable with the arrangement while Dickie's eccentricities and casual profanity will seep into his routine. It's basically the same premise as another 2003 comedy (albeit one that was delayed until 2004) The Ben Affleck James Gandolfini vehicle Surviving Christmas where Ben Affleck's charact did the exact same thing, but was instead a lonely ad executive. I will say this for Dickie Roberts, despite using the exact same premise as Surviving Christmas, at the very least it tries to construct stronger internal logic to justify its premise than Surviving Christmas did. I actually do think there's scenes in the film that do get decent laughs in them such as a scene where Dickie frames the story of his sitcom's cancellation as a scary story and on occasion there are fleeting moments of character for Dickie that almost have resonance, but the movie all too often shoots itself in the foot because despite being about child stars who've grown up, it spends much of its time avoiding the subject and basically tap dancing around it.
Much like other Happy Madison films, the movie isn't directed like a movie and is directed more like a SNL sketch. The actors on display are all abrasive and annoying because the direction they've been given comedically speaking is to emphasizes silly speech patterns and just be loud because somehow that will make the material funny. While SNL has been and is a proving ground for comic talent, it has also resulted in a number of misfires because their delivery they used on SNL didn't transfer to feature films or narrative TV, and considering that the majority of SNL sketches are built upon this kind of delivery and that's what SNL has taught to its performers and they basically have to unlearn it to become serviceable actors it's nothing short of miraculous the level of quality SNL alums have had. The movie is so rich with comic potential and it just never comes out. Had this been allowed to be a darker comedy more in tone with something like Cable Guy or Death to Smoochy maybe it would've worked a bit better, but since it plays like a broad comedy with a very juvenile slant (not surprising as it's from the director of George of the Jungle) it feels like a mismatch of material and handler.
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star has a decent premise and a few inspired comic set pieces, but its unfortunately suffocated by overworn tropes that are more aggravating than funny and because it doesn't go as deep into the double edged sword of child stardom as it wants it's more focused on redundant slapstick and pratfalls than it is on building characters or lampooning the child stardom. If you want to see this concept done well then watch Bojack Horseman's take on this sort of thing as it's not afraid to dive into the uglier side of child stardom.