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Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 21 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Fred Wolf
David Spade
Directed by: Sam Weisman
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 5, 2003
DVD: February 17, 2004
Running Time: 99 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language and drug references
Starring David Spade, Ashley Edner, Scott Terra, Jon Lovitz, Mary McCormack, Alyssa Milano, Doris Roberts, and Rob Reiner
Dickie Roberts (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. (Paramount)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
This sleek and sunny comedy is an all-too-rare example of smart and inventive Hollywood filmmaking.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
The rare David Spade movie that won't make you hate yourself in the morning.
Read Full Review >Variety Joe Leydon
Offers a largely satisfying mix of broad slapstick, seriocomic sentimentality and mostly amusing satirical thrusts at easy targets.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Imparts its fair share of laughs but bogs down after a solid start and never makes anything special out of its premise.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
There are laughs, to be sure, and some gleeful supporting performances, but after a promising start the movie sinks in a bog of sentiment.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The movie's ridiculous good humor -- laced with just enough barbs to keep it from going soft -- suggest that it's been made with some thought and care. I often found myself laughing in spite of no one, not even myself.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
Squanders endless opportunities for sharp satire, keeping to a steady course of tame, toothless comedy, and wrapping things up with the kind of vapid ending "The Brady Bunch" would be proud to call its own.
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
After a smart start, it sinks into sentimental goo that traps even the aggressively snarky Spade.
Read Full Review >New York Post Megan Lehmann
The majority of Dickie Roberts winds up looking like a tame episode of the "Brady Bunch" -- spiked with Spade-esque crudity.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The number of levels on which these pros trade on their diminished reputations makes the movie an inside joke rather than a funny one. If Spade thinks otherwise, he's nucking futs.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
The movie has been made with consummate carelessness but with occasional moments of knowing humor.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The film is intermittently funny and strangely intermittent.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Generally succeeds -- in hit-and-miss fashion -- at bridging the gap between unlikable jerk and misunderstood good guy, though it's still something of a leap to leading-man territory.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Maintaining a winking distance from his comic persona, Mr. Spade radiates a cunning show-business cynicism that lets you know he's aware that he's slumming to make a buck.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Spade claims he latched onto his snide persona to distinguish himself from the pack; it's served him well as an ensemble player and a big-screen foil to Chris Farley, but as a romantic lead he's hopeless.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
Isn't so much a movie as a 90-minute Trivial Pursuit contest to name bit players from TV's distant past.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The best thing about star and co-writer David Spade's Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star is the end-title sequence, a big, sassy sing-along in which dozens of old TV child stars spew out defiant jokes about their old careers and fame's fickle fingers.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Charles Savage
Whether his character is happy, sad, angry or scared, Spade affects precisely the same knowing smirk and sarcastic delivery. This one-note style makes him a funny stand-up comedian. But in a role, it's usually pure amateur hour.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Spade can still be funny when he lets himself be mean, and Dickie Roberts shows glimmers of that dynamic, but they're muscled out by lazy slapstick and maudlin stuff.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
It underscores the gruesome legacy of Saturday Night Live in American movies...They haven't liberated screen comedy, they've left it neutered--or, should I say, Spade.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
There's a funny movie struggling inside of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Too bad it never gets out.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Four chuckles and a lively final-credits sequence are a mighty poor score for 99 minutes of alleged comedy, and the sentimental stuff is even worse.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
When the movie's not playing stupid, it's aiming for sickly sweet sincerity. It's such a jarring and inevitably juvenile juxtaposition it comes off like a Hallmark card parody written by the staffers at "Cracked."
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
This David Spade comedy breaks an ankle, ruptures several knee ligaments and hits the dirt harder than a felled linebacker. Best thing you can do for this movie? Leave it writhing in the throes of forced humor.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
The best bit, however, is not even in the movie, but in the films end credits: an expletive-filled parody of We Are the World in which a host of has-beens croon about their halcyon days as child stars.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 21 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Andrew gave it a9:
It was funny, entertaining, and still had a moral at the end... Thats what a good comedy should be.
Rachel H. gave it a 10:
This was one ov tha funniest movies ive eva seen! I luved it! i no heaps ov tha lines off by heart, and all my friends lykd it 2. i dont care wht other ppl hav riten, they're probably 2 old 2 undastand humor. neways i giv this movie a 10 cause its tha best!
Robert M. gave it a 1:
All i can say is its not funny.
[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
We ALL know what "Nucking Futs" means, it's kinda corny but still 10.
Mike H. gave it an 8:
I have to say that this is a good movie.
[Anonymous] gave it a 2:
It was so predictable, like the bunny and the marriage.
Todd B. gave it a 0:
David Spade should give up starring in movies and just do supporting work, he's much better suited there.
