John Cena's ability to make people laugh
far outweigh his in ring WWE skills his
secret is that nobody is more committed
to the role than him he's like the
Daniel D Lewis of goofball performances
and can make a pretty good comedy like
vacation friends great but his talents
have limits because he can't make a
terrible sequel like vacation friends
too less
objectionable and that's sort of where
things are with Ricky stanicki and obnox
ious aggressively unfunny bro comedy in
which Cena commits to an unusual number
of masturbation jokes to try and get
Peter fery's second craptastic post
green book film over then again Cena
plays a guy named Rock Hard Rod so maybe
masturbation humor was always part of
the deal unfortunately it's about all
this film has to offer it's unfathomable
that it's taken more than a decade and
six credited writers to to make Ricky
staki a reality prior versions nearly
starred James Franco and Walkin Phoenix
in the role that Cena decided to make
his own he plays the aforementioned Rod
a runchy hard drinking Atlantic City
performer who was recruited by a trio of
old buds to play their madeup friend
Ricky
staki why have these three presumably
adult men created a fake friend who they
suddenly need to exist well that's part
of the convoluted contrived exhausting
setup the film begins in 1999 when best
buds Dean Zack Efron JT Andrew Santino
and Wes the perpetually unfunny Jermaine
Fowler create the non-existent Ricky
staki identity as a buil-in excuse for
all of their hijinks including nearly
burning down a neighbor's home in a poop
prank gone bad it worked so well that
they just kept blaming all of of their
mischievous Antics on staki going so far
as to create a literal Bible of his
various activities and backstory and
this guy has done everything from
working with green pieace to surviving
cancer staki has everything and anything
they need him to be in the moment but
mostly he's an excuse for them to get
out of things they don't want to do as
adults they use Stan's cancer diagnosis
as a reason to get out of a baby shower
for JT wife and instead go to you
guessed it Atlantic City where they
encounter Rod but nothing goes quite as
plann JT's wife goes into labor early
the family tries to find them and comes
to the conclusion this Ricky staki
person as fake so the guys double down
on their lies which in and of themselves
are divorce worthy awful by hiring Rod
to show up and play Ricky staki to get
everyone off the scent turns out rod as
too good at his job though people
absolutely love him he has an answer or
a smart quip for anything he's a
gigantic personality and pretty soon
he's insinuated himself into their lives
when they really just need Ricky
stanicki to be imaginary again it's the
perfect kind of role for Cena who is
himself also a guy with a larger than
life attitude and impossible to hate