After the glitz and glamour and worthiness of the Oscars, sometimes you just want to embrace the other side of cinema. Something that lets you switch your brain off and destress. Luckily, Amazon Prime Video's new number-one movie is certainly not a thinker.
Sitting at the top of the charts is Ricky Stanicky, an Amazon original that seems to be from a different era. Reminiscent of the 'R-rated comedies' of the late '90s and early 2000s, it stars Zac Effron and John Cena. Interestingly it also comes from director Peter Farrelly, one-half of the brothers who directed Dumb and Dumber, but who is also solely responsible for directing Green Book (a Best Picture winner). This movie isn't going to compete for such honours, but is it still worth a watch? Maybe.
Effron leads a trio of guys who created the character of Ricky Stanicky in childhood as an excuse and ran with it. Now in adult life, they are still using their imaginary friend's name to get out of things and make excuses. When Ricky's existence comes under scrutiny they hire a struggling actor (John Cena) to become Ricky, which with the help of their 'Bible of Ricky Stanicky' he does an impressive job of. But things soon spiral out of control. In all honesty, It is pretty hard to root for our lead characters when they seem to be nothing more than a group of irresponsible man-children
The film currently boasts a 46% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes but a much more respectable 74% from audiences. That makes sense really as a film like this is never going to be a critical darling. In truth, I'm not rushing to watch Ricky Stanicky again, but it is at least the kind of movie to get you out of a funk with some stupid laughs.
If you're after something a bit more well-loved on Prime Video then you have plenty of options. The service recently added a superb Greta Gerwig movie, and the incoming Fallout series looks awesome.
