Movie Review: Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
I admit it: I like the Happy Madison Productions. As silly and stupid as they might be, they usually contain a decent amount of surreal humor that elicits a few chuckles, and underneath all the bodily humor jokes the films tend to have a decent message behind them. But call it the casting, the script, or simply the law of averages, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star puts those elements together in a way that shows the formula is starting to wear thin.
Bucky Larson (Nick Swardson) doesn’t just have a clever name; he’s a ridiculously buck-toothed, naive young man from Iowa that has just discovered his first pornographic film…shame the stars happen to be his mother and father (Miriam Flynn and Edward Hermann). Unlike the rest of us, he’s not horrified by this revelation, but inspired; feeling it is his destiny to follow in his parent’s footsteps, he heads out to Hollywood to make it as a big screen star. There, he meets love interest Kathy (Christina Ricci), rival Dick Shadow (Stephen Dorff), and washed-up director Miles Deep (Don Johnson). After a disastrous first audition (and the subsequent revelation that Bucky is…well, “less-than-adequate” for his new dream job), Bucky’s hopes seem dashed…until his real star power makes him the toast of the town, and soon it’s clear the small-town kid is going to change Hollywood, not the other way around.
The premise isn’t quite as ridiculous as many other Happy Madison films…which actually may be something that works against it in the long run. Unlike previous stuff like Little Nicky or even The Waterboy, it never lets itself loose, and the result is a comedy that, while grotesque, never gets quite as outrageous and surreal as it should. The closest it gets come from Bucky’s roommate Gary (Kevin Nealon), these also happen to be the best moments of the movie. Nealon seems to be having the most fun out of anyone in the cast, and his portrayal as the roommate from hell is fun to watch, especially when he bursts into over-the-top tirades about touching anything of his from the refrigerator.
The poor showing of Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star is especially a shame, too, since Nick Swardson has shown he’s capable of much better than this. Here, none of his talent for improvisation or silly voices amounts to anything, as he is strait-jacketed into the role of straight man. He may be buck-toothed and…um, “lacking,” but that’s about as silly as he gets. He is portrayed very sympathetically, in that he is sweet and nice and never lets the constant cracks about his teeth get him down, but at the same time he is portrayed so positively that he never gets to do anything funny himself. He fits in more humor in one of his 3 minute bits as Terry on Reno 911! than he does in Bucky Larson’s entire running time.
Nick Swardson (center) in Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. Photo by John Ales.
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Aside from that, the humor that does exist is forced; I hate to say it, but long portions of the movie aren’t really all that funny. There are a couple of moments that do shine, if only for their unexpectedness (the life-sized doll that activates as Bucky leaves an adult video store, for one, and the conversation about the cocker spaniel), and even they are lone islands in a vast sea of mediocrity. And so many characters go wasted; Dorff is built up to be a big villain but is given little to do, Ricci is almost as plain vanilla as a required love interest can get, Allen Covert and the other Happy Madison staple players come and go in the blink of an eye, and many of the background characters don’t get the comeuppance you’d expect them to get. Really, the movie should’ve focused more on Don Johnson; he has the most to do with the plot, he’s more interesting than Bucky overall, and honestly, he gets the funnier lines. If this had been billed as a movie about a washed-up director who gets back in the game by exploiting the oaf who shows up on his doorstep, not only would’ve it been more accurate, but it would’ve made for a better script. The movie suffers by forcing Swardson into the starring role instead of the plucky sidekick he’s played for so long. Not that I think Swardson can’t handle a starring role…this just wasn’t that movie.
Happy Madison fans, shake your head in disapproval…a handful of gags and Kevin Nealon can’t save Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star from being the worst Adam Sandler’s production company has put out in awhile. Everyone involved can do (and has done) better things, even on their worst days.
Seth Paul
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