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Dickie Roberts - Former Child Star (Widescreen Edition)

Dickie Roberts - Former Child Star (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Devil Rabbit!!
Review: Many SNL alumni have made awful movies that unsucessfully try to inject sentimentality into a silly comedy, which results in a dull, uneven mess. I'm a fan of David Spade, but his post-Chris Farley movies haven't been up to snuff. However, "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" is NOT another "Joe Dirt" and it's second only to "Tommy Boy."

An eccentric former child star from the '70s (David Spade) desperately wants a comeback, but is resigned to parking cars at a restaurant. After hearing about a new Rob Reiner movie that's expected to be huge, he begs his ineffective but well meaning agent (Jon Lovitz) to get him an audition. When he finally talks with Reiner, Dickie finds out that his troubled past will prevent him from playing a normal character. To remedy the situation, Dickie decides to relive his childhood to live the life he should've had. He moves in with the Finneys, a family that seems sitcom-perfect but have a less-than-rosy life. Dickie only adds to their problems at first, but in the end the family learns from Dickie as much as he learns from them, and he discovers what he really wants out of life. The movie's premise is a little weird but it holds water; using past experiences to map your approach to a character and the character's emotional levels are vital to making an acting performance work well. It's not surprising that Rob Reiner thought that Dickie wouldn't be able to do it correctly.

For the most part, I can't complain about the acting. Dickie has Spade's trademark sarcasm mixed in with believable naivete, peculiarity, and sincerity. The father (Craig Bierko) is convincingly smarmy, and Mary McCormack is perfectly cast as the sweet, gentle mom. As for the kids, adorable Jenna Boyd plays Sally Finney perfectly, and is a young actress with a lot of potential. On the other hand, Sam Finney (Scott Terra) is a very flat character. Dickie describes Sam as a "cool, funny guy," but we never get to see anything that resembles a distinct personality in Sam. It doesn't help that Terra talks too fast and mumbles his lines. Rounding out the cast are lots of funny cameos from celebrities and real former child stars, who are included in a hilarious music video at the end of the movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny From Start to Finsh!
Review: There's a scene in "Dickie Roberts Former Child Star" where Dickie, played by David Spade, is playing poker with a large group of former child stars. Being a fan of old 60's-80's television shows, I found that I did reconize at least more then half of those stars. And when Barry Williams, who played Greg on "The Brady Bunch", was giving away items from some of the classic episodes from the old sitcom, I was laughing away in my seat.

"Dickie Roberts" is a form of comedy where even thought you know what is going to happen, it's still funny because of the way that it is brought out. It's done in a way that everything that you know will probally happen, happens when you least expect it. It's like watching a normal comedy, with everything happening out of order. Predictable, but surprising, if you could understand what I'm saying.

The movie opens like an episode of "E! True Hollywood Story," where you learn a brief history of Dickie Roberts as a child star and Dickie Roberts as an adult. When he was a child he was the star of "The Glimmer Gang", with the famous catch phrase of "This is nucking futs." He never knew who his real father was, and once the show went off the air, his mother abandoned him. Now years later, Dickie is a thirty five year old parking valet, who wears gloves twenty four hours a day, who gets dumped by his girlfriend Cyndi. He finally decides to tryout for the new Rob Reiner film "Mr. Blakes Backyard", and he tries to get an audition from his agent, Sidney Wernick(played by Jon Lovitz perfectly.)

After meeting with Reiner, he decides that Dickie looks just like he pictured when he wrote the script, but he is afraid that Dickie will not be able to handle the emotional aspect of the film, because he never experienced the main function of adulthood, which is a childhood. Reiner tells Dickie that he is waiting a few months to decide who will get the part, giving Dickie an idea. He decides to put an ad in the newspaper and hire a family to treat him like a kid for about one month, so he could see what it was like to be a kid. After some horrible meetings with people, he ends up on the driveway of The Finneys. Car salesmen dad George has agreed to the plan without talking to his wife, Grace, of their two children Sally and Sam. None of those three like the idea of having a stranger living in their house, but they agree to let him stay and for the next few weeks, Dickie experences what it is like to be a normal kid, without the fame.

I like David Spade. I liked "The Adventures of Joe Dirt," and I liked him on the now cancelled show "Just Shoot Me." So naturally I was excited when I learned that he was going to be in this movie. Everybody worked well in this. All of the actors and actresses looked like they were all having a good time, which is good. I feel that it is a shame that this movie did not make as much mony as it did. So soon, if "Matchstick Men" is sold out(read earlier review) go see "Dickie Roberts Former Child Star."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's a riot!
Review: I thought that this movie is an excellent family movie with only slight traces of adult humor. There are many hilarious parts such as the Slip n Slide, Water Wiggle, and sprinkler/jetski/motorcycle. David spade at his best, with much contribution from Grace, Sam, and Sally. A true future classic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I Wanted To Hate It...But Failed.
Review: "Dickie Roberts (David Spade) is a 35-year old former child star. Now an out-of-work actor turned parking valet, Dickie is desperate to audition for a great role that could revitalize his career, but the part requires him to play a "normal" guy. Problem is, Dickie is anything but normal. He decides to hire a family to adopt him so he can relive his childhood and, in essence, grow up from scratch." © from the website DickieRoberts.com

My daughters brought this movie home to watch the other day. I had nothing else to do, so I decided to sit through what I was sure to be a typical lackluster attempt at comedy. Well through the first fifteen minutes or so my prediction was pretty much "on the money". But then, things started to change:

Not only does David Spade's acting change during this movie, but many of the stars come to the rescue.

Jenna Boyd as Dickie's adopted sister "Sally" gave an amazing performance. Look for this young actress to have a very promising career. Her character could not have been played any better by anyone.

Scott Terra as Dickie's adopted brother "Sam" was also perfect in his ability to make the movie more believable.

Mary McCormack as Dickie's adopted mom also carried David Spade through-out the flick.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this movie. I found the scenes with Dickie trying to learn how to ride a bike one of the funniest "watch the guy get hurt" moments in any movie I have seen. If a person doesn't laugh at those scenes, they must be dead!

This is a movie that starts off slow, but finally delivers a good piece of work! I think CASTING should get a bonus.

God Bless all you amazon.com freaks.

Until my next review, be good out there:

www.therunninggirl.com

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Mostly Awful
Review: I am not a huge David Spade fan, but he can make me laugh sometimes, especially in "Tommy Boy." This movie, on the other hand, seldom made me laugh. I just don't think Spade can carry a movie by himself. The jokes were tired and predictable, with something notably funny every 15-20 minutes. I won't even go into how amazingly absurd the premise is, because by now we all know what to expect of movies starring ex SNL cast members. All we can hope for are some good laughs, but this movie did not deliver.

The exception had to be the end credits, which was by far the highlight for me. The song performed by all the child stars, done "We Are The World" style, was great. I loved seeing the guys from What's Happening, and the Brady Bunch, and all the other shows I watched as a kid.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "That's Nucking Futs!"
Review: This movie is truly a comeback for David Spade after JSM (just shoot me) going off the air! it starts out a little slow, but the movie really builds and becomes funny. It was actually one of the things David Spade's done thats come close to being a family thing. Ya, theres language and innuendo and such, but it is very enjoyable. I would go see it again and again!

Its basically about a child star who wants his career back and must research a 'childhood' in order to get a 'comeback' role from Rob Reiner. There's twists and the plot's good, but most importantly it's funny!! i LOVE everything David Spades ever done! i even liked his movies that flopped, and JSM was my favorite show, but this is some of his best work/writing. I recommend it to teens and adults mostly, though.
GO SEE IT!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny, Sweet, and Uplifting
Review: I'm a huge David Spade fan, and I really enjoyed this movie. It was funny, had a great story and is one of those movies that leaves you in a great mood when it's over!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: See many child stars (now adults) from 1970's and 1980's.
Review: This movie is really for the over 40 crowd. It makes fun of the television stars we all enjoyed when we were young kids, teenagers and young adults in the 1970's. Yes! The 1970's were the golden years of our life. Nowadays, if you remember the tv shows and music from the 1970's, you are considered "retrospective". Good for you! I bet you watch TV Land cable network. Groovy!
David Spade (NBC Saturday Night Live) plays a fictional child star now an adult, but he hasn't exactly grown up yet. Meant to be a tongue-in-cheeck comedy, this film includes many of your real child stars and adult stars from television in the 1970's & 1980's: Doris Roberts (Angie 1979-80), Dick Van Patten (Eight Is Enough 1977-81), Alyssa Milano (Who's The Boss 1984-92), Emmanuel Lewis (Webster 1983-87), Leif Garrett, pop music star, Jon Lovitz (NBC Saturday Night Live 1985-90), Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family 1970-74), Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch 1969-74), Corey Feldman (Gremlins [1984], The Goonies [1985]), Dustin Diamond (Saved By The Bell 1989-93), Rob Reiner (All In The Family 1971-79) and Edie McClurg (WKRP in Cincinnati, The david Letterman Show (1980).
The Misic video, "Child Stars On Your television" includes Jay North (Dennis the Menace), Charlene Tilton (Dallas), Adam Rich, Willie Aames (Eight Is Enough), Jermey Miller (Growing Pains), Ernest Thomas, haywood nelson, the late Fred Berry (What's Happening), Butch Patrick (The Munsters), Dustin Diamond (Saved By The Bell), Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges (Diff'rent Strokes), Ron Palillo (Welcome Back, Kotter), Florence Henderson, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland, Maureen McCormick (The Brady Bunch), Tony Dow (Leave It To Beaver), Paul Petersen (The Donna Reed Show),

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesomely funny!
Review: This movie is hilarious! As I said in my title for this review, AWESOMELY FUNNY! Dickie Roberts (David Spade) tries to get a tryout with Steven Spielberg to make his career a final sucess. Since before Dickie was a child star and was the hottest thing around with all of his silly catch phrases. But ever since the show came off the air, Dickie's life went out with it. Dickie was spoiled to death and never learned how a "real kid" lived. So Steven won't let Dickie try out unless he can prove to him that he can live the life he never did. Suprisingly he gets the typical Californian family with two kids. All of them hate each other at the beginning but then that hate turns to love and act like brothers and sisters helping Dickie see the life he never lived and to act like one on the inside. This is just a taste of the movie of your life!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I enjoyed it
Review: This movie is so much better than Joe Dirt (I actually found Joe Dirt more sad than funny!). It is about a boy named Dickie Roberts whose father left him and his mother doesn't care much about him because she became pregnant with him while she was trying to get into show business. She held a grudge against her son and brought him to many auditions, and he became a child star and coined the term "nuckin futs!" on his show. However, the show got canceled. His mother left him since he was no longer a star, and he was permanently scarred, thinking that love came through show business. He gets an agent to try to get back into the public's loving eye. He hears of a movie deal with a famous director, but the director tells him that he can't get the part because he isn't a normal guy since he never had a child hood. Dickie hires a family and learns how to love. It's a great movie with some laughs and some things that make you feel good. It has some good morals. The most hilarious thing is the "Child Stars on your Television" song at the end, and the DVD is worth the song! It has an extended song in the special features and all. I enjoyed this movie!


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