'Ricky Stanicky': Comedy about fake friend a real letdown

The script for the high-concept, lowbrow comedy “Ricky Stanicky” has been bouncing around Hollywood for a decade and a half, with the likes of James Franco, Jim Carrey and Joaquin Phoenix attached to the project at various points. Now that “Ricky Stanicky” finally has been made and will be released through Prime Video, you know who is probably breathing a sigh of relief? James Franco, Jim Carrey and Joaquin Phoenix. That’s because they’re not in the film.

This is not to disparage the talents of likable stars Zac Efron and John Cena, not to mention a terrific supporting cast. I’m not sure even an out-of-retirement Daniel Day-Lewis and an in-his-prime Eddie Murphy could rescue this material. Directed by Peter Farrelly from a story/screenplay credited to a total of eight writers (rarely a hopeful sign), “Ricky Stanicky” has the cheerfully offensive and goofy offbeat flavor of 1990s Farrelly Brothers comedies such as “Dumb and Dumber,” “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary,” only with most of the laughs and much of the charm MIA.

When best friends Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino) and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) were kids, they pulled a mean-spirited prank that went horribly wrong and invented the imaginary Ricky Stanicky to take the fall. Through the years, these selfish, immature bros have used Ricky Stanicky as an excuse to get out of commitments, a scapegoat when trouble arises, and a springboard for partying out of town. Through the use of phony social media accounts and a playbook with an ever-expanding array of excuses for why nobody ever meets Ricky in person, the boys have gotten away with this ruse for more than two decades — until now.

After JT’s wife Susan (Anja Savcic) goes into labor while the boys are partying in Atlantic City, Susan’s mother Leona (Heather Mitchell), who has long suspected “Ricky Stanicky” is made up, insists Ricky attend the bris.

We know we’re on shaky storytelling ground when someone suggests a plan so crazy it just might work, and that’s exactly what happens here when Dean proposes they hire an actor to portray Ricky Stanicky. As plot contrivance would have it, they had just met the perfect candidate in Atlantic City: one “Rock Hard Rod” (Cena), a substance-abusing, no-talent and quite raunchy celebrity impersonator who is desperate for work of any kind, and gladly agrees to swoop into town to play the part of the legendary and previously unseen Ricky Stanicky. What could possibly go right?

Even for a broad, live-action cartoon of a comedy, it stretches credulity that anyone with a working brain would buy this charade, let alone be dazzled by Ricky. Still, Dean and JT’s boss, the supposedly sophisticated and hard-nosed Summerhayes (a game William H. Macy), is so taken with Ricky’s direct way of speaking and lack of pretense that he actually hires Ricky for a high-level job in the company.

Further complicating matters, Dean’s TV reporter wife Erin (Lex Scott Davies), believes Ricky’s phony back story, which includes doing humanitarian work overseas and battling cancer, makes him a perfect candidate for the “Hero of Week” segment on the MFNBC network. (MFNBC, get it? It’s almost, like, a dirty joke.) It looks like Dean, JT and Wes are going to have to pull off the most elaborate lie yet — or maybe it’s finally time for them to learn that the truth will set you free, or some such thing.

By the time “Ricky Stanicky” comes to its wobbly and utterly unconvincing resolution, it’s hard to imagine caring less about what happens to these three louts and their imaginary/real friend.