 Many critics have concluded that the only thing wrong with the new comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is that it's not very funny. The film stars David Spade as a former child star, who, at mid-life, is struggling to rebuild his career while working as a car attendant. Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe observes: "To the casual Spade fan, this might seem dangerously close to home. Every Spade outing fills you with worry that he's one knuckleheaded movie away from parking cars himself." An even harsher judgment of the star is provided by John Anderson of Newsday: "What Spade brings to the title character... is very close to nothing." Comments Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: "There are laughs, to be sure, and some gleeful supporting performances, but after a promising start the movie sinks in a bog of sentiment." Similarly Chris Kaltenbach writes in the Baltimore Sun: "There's a funny movie struggling inside of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Too bad it never gets out." Several critics (Ebert included) remark that the film might have been a whole lot funnier if Jim Carrey had been cast in the title role. Stephen Holden in the New York Times observes that unlike Carrey, "Mr. Spade is no comic ball of fire." All of the critics, however, do agree on one thing: the closing credits which reunites a slew of former child stars singing a kind of profanity-laced "We Are the World," is worth the price of admission. |
