David Spade's new comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star comes from Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison.
That means it could have starred Rob Schneider or Sandler himself.
Films like The Animal, Big Daddy and Dickie Roberts are not about such trivial things as character and plot but about jokes -- and the more obvious and self-referential the gag, the better.
Spade is Dickie Roberts, a wannabe actor who was once a huge child star.
His last gasp at fame is a recent E! Hollywood True Story episode that recalls how in his kiddie star heyday Dickie's face was on everything from lunchboxes to T-shirts.
Now he has trouble getting booked on Celebrity Boxing.
The real comic hook for Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is that people whose shows haunt Nick at Night have cameos in the film.
Dickie's link to his past is his weekly poker game with the likes of real-life child stars Barry Williams, Corey Feldman, Leif Garrett, Danny Bonaduce and Dustin Diamond.
It's alternately fun, shocking and depressing to see some of these once-familiar faces.
Time, substance abuse and botched facelifts have not been overly kind to some, so Spade and his film cohorts find it necessary to have their names appear on screen or to refer to them by name constantly.
The true grabber comes with the film's closing credits when about 20 of these faded celebs sing a stinging parody of We Are the World, lamenting the type-casting that created and destroyed their careers.
Getting from the poker scene to the end credits is a sometimes tedious, sometimes hilarious journey.
Dickie learns Rob Reiner is casting a new film and he just happens to be physically perfect for the lead role.
Brendan Fraser sets up an interview for Dickie with Reiner, who promptly tells the spoiled brat he's never had a real life so he can't possibly play a real person, which the role calls for.
Before his next audition, Dickie has just two months to find out what it means to have a normal childhood so he rents himself a family with a dad, mom, brother and sister.
Every single cliched joke is telegraphed -- for example: Little brother is being bullied at school so Dickie takes on the three abusers, giving them a taste of their own medicine.
Dad (Craig Bierko) is cheating on mom, played by Mary McCormick, a dead ringer for Samantha on Bewitched and just as bewitching.
In his attempts to find out how to be a child, Dickie discovers how to be an adult and longs to be the head of a family, not just some temporary sibling.
Spade is hilarious, especially when he's taking shots at Hollywood and the whole celebrity game.
But when Dickie Roberts gets maudlin, Spade shows only too clearly he's not an actor.
Few people play smarmy and obnoxious as well as Spade but, like Dickie, he can't play it real.
(This film is rated PG)
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