“Dickie Roberts” stars David Spade as an aging, out of work, former child actor. At one point in his life he was at the top, but when his 1970s TV sitcom got cancelled he began that long, long road to becoming a walking talking “E: True Hollywood Story.” Eager to revive his career, he tries to get cast in a new film by director Rob Reiner. Reiner feels Dickie hasn’t had a normal enough life to play the part. (Of course, one does wonder why it is called ‘acting.’) So Dickie does what any abnormal ex-child actor would do, he hires a family to raise him so he can learn what a normal life might have been like. Generally a plot like this might warrant the term ‘hilarity ensues.’ In the case of “Dickie Roberts”, I’m not sure hilarity is the proper term to use. I admittedly found a lot of the film to be quite amusing, but that was based on two pre-requisites. I already like David Spade’s brand of super-sarcastic humor, and I’ve always been fascinated with aging child actors. If you don’t happen to share my interests, then you might not find “Dickie Roberts” to be especially funny.

The film just isn’t well-written enough to cross the boundaries of ‘everyday audience.’ However, as I do have those pre-requisites, there were parts of the movie that I found to be very funny.

Part of the fun for me was catching those glimpses of the child actors I grew up watching throughout the film. There were a few that had substantial roles, but most had quick cameos and dared you to recognize them.

Whatever shortcoming’s “Dickie Roberts” might have had are made up for in Paramount’s DVD release of the film. There are a ton of extra features, including two commentaries. The first is by director Sam Weisman, which is fairly interesting. The second is by Spade and Co-Writer Fred Wolf. This one is actually pretty funny, with the two of them bantering back and forth like old friends. A lost of Spade’s humor comes out in this commentary, and he is actually funnier here than in the movie. There are also a couple of “Making of…” featurettes which are pretty entertaining.

The most interesting yet somewhat disturbing extra features are the music video for “Child Stars on Your Television” and the subsequent “Behind the Scenes” look at the making of the video. It’s extremely cool that the producers of the film were able to get so many former child stars together on one stage, and the song they sing is bitingly funny. But at the same time it was kind of unsettling to see some of my childhood idols all grown up. And it was obvious that a few of them probably weren’t doing so well and the anger and resentment they sing about in the video wasn’t false. Several of them seemed to be having a good time, but still. I also wouldn’t recommend showing the video to your kids, especially if they are familiar with some of the older shows. Young fans of “The Brady Bunch” really don’t need to see the grown up Marcia Brady…uhh I mean Maureen McCormick using the “F” word.

“Dickie Roberts” won’t appeal to everyone, but the concept is pretty amusing, and again, if you like David Spade’s style of humor you’ll probably find it at least as funny as I did.

Directed by: Sam Weisman
Starring: David Spade, Mary McCormick, Jon Lovitz, Craig Bierko, Alyssa Milano, Rob Reiner
Extras: Director Commentary, Commentary by Actor/Writer David Spade and Writer Fred Wolf, The True Hollywood Story, Pencil Dickie: Writing the Story, Behind “Child Stars on Your Television”, Reel Comedy: Dickie Roberts, “Child Stars on Your Television” Extended Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Theatrical Trailer
Specifications: Widescreen Enhanced for 16X9 Televisions, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, English Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround
Studio: Paramount
Release Date: 2/17/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (For Crude and Sex Related Humor, Language and Drug References)
Website

We'll give Dickie Roberts a C+.