Ricky Stanicky: Peter returns to the Farrelly roots (review)

It's been 10 years since the Farrelly brothers last did comedy. Peter takes up the torch solo with this crazy farce with low, assertive humor. We have the right to find it funny.

Peter without Bobby, it rather gave films to Oscars, like its moving Green Book, crowned in 2019 by the supreme statuette (a little to everyone's surprise). But this time, Peter is doing Farrelly again in the text, with this gently lit farce, which smacks of the good old comedy of the 2000s, to watch from today on Prime Video in streaming.

Without being as successful as Mary at all costwithout being as crazy as a Dumb and Dumber or as original as one Crazy for IreneThis Ricky Stanicky has everything of a return to the sources for the filmmaker, who in passing offers John Cena an ideal platform to display his astonishing sense of comic timing, already seen in the series Peacemaker.

This time, the former wrestler plays a loser actor, hired by three old childhood friends. Dean, JT and Wes invented the character of Ricky Stanicky to cover all their stupidities and excesses since they were little. Yes, but today, their respective spouses are starting to find it fishy. So to protect their secret, they hire a “fake” Ricky who is larger than life…

Obviously, the plan is not going to go as planned. Obviously, the straw man will prove uncontrollable and will completely turn their lives upside down. The sketch writes itself and does not revolutionize the genre, with its good feelings of rigor. But it has the merit of being supercharged, without the slightest downtime. And above all, it's funny. Sometimes very funny even. The gags assume perfectly not to fly above the belt, with a William H. Macy priceless as a boss who is a fan of air-masturbation without knowing it. No doubt, we're back at the Farrellys!