Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: September 5, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
16
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
This sleek and sunny comedy is an all-too-rare example of smart and inventive Hollywood filmmaking. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
The rare David Spade movie that won't make you hate yourself in the morning. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Manages to fascinate more than it entertains. Read full review
60
VarietyJoe Leydon
Offers a largely satisfying mix of broad slapstick, seriocomic sentimentality and mostly amusing satirical thrusts at easy targets. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Imparts its fair share of laughs but bogs down after a solid start and never makes anything special out of its premise. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The number of levels on which these pros trade on their diminished reputations makes the movie an inside joke rather than a funny one. If Spade thinks otherwise, he's nucking futs. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The film is intermittently funny and strangely intermittent. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
The movie's ridiculous good humor -- laced with just enough barbs to keep it from going soft -- suggest that it's been made with some thought and care. I often found myself laughing in spite of no one, not even myself. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Sharp satire or feel-good foolishness? Silly sap won out. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Squanders endless opportunities for sharp satire, keeping to a steady course of tame, toothless comedy, and wrapping things up with the kind of vapid ending "The Brady Bunch" would be proud to call its own.
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
After a smart start, it sinks into sentimental goo that traps even the aggressively snarky Spade. Read full review
50
New York PostMegan Lehmann
The majority of Dickie Roberts winds up looking like a tame episode of the "Brady Bunch" -- spiked with Spade-esque crudity. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There are laughs, to be sure, and some gleeful supporting performances, but after a promising start the movie sinks in a bog of sentiment. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
The movie has been made with consummate carelessness but with occasional moments of knowing humor. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
The unique musical ending is worth the wait. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Spade goes sweet and gooey. This is nucking futs. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Maintaining a winking distance from his comic persona, Mr. Spade radiates a cunning show-business cynicism that lets you know he's aware that he's slumming to make a buck. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Spade claims he latched onto his snide persona to distinguish himself from the pack; it's served him well as an ensemble player and a big-screen foil to Chris Farley, but as a romantic lead he's hopeless. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
Generally succeeds -- in hit-and-miss fashion -- at bridging the gap between unlikable jerk and misunderstood good guy, though it's still something of a leap to leading-man territory. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The best thing about star and co-writer David Spade's Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star is the end-title sequence, a big, sassy sing-along in which dozens of old TV child stars spew out defiant jokes about their old careers and fame's fickle fingers. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldCharles Savage
Whether his character is happy, sad, angry or scared, Spade affects precisely the same knowing smirk and sarcastic delivery. This one-note style makes him a funny stand-up comedian. But in a role, it's usually pure amateur hour. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Isn't so much a movie as a 90-minute Trivial Pursuit contest to name bit players from TV's distant past. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyJohn Dentino
Occasionally funny, cameo-speckled marshmallow. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Spade can still be funny when he lets himself be mean, and Dickie Roberts shows glimmers of that dynamic, but they're muscled out by lazy slapstick and maudlin stuff. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Edelstein
It underscores the gruesome legacy of Saturday Night Live in American movies...They haven't liberated screen comedy, they've left it neutered--or, should I say, Spade. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlex Pappademas
Obtuse and creepy. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Four chuckles and a lively final-credits sequence are a mighty poor score for 99 minutes of alleged comedy, and the sentimental stuff is even worse. Read full review
25
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
There's a funny movie struggling inside of Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. Too bad it never gets out. Read full review
20
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
When the movie's not playing stupid, it's aiming for sickly sweet sincerity. It's such a jarring and inevitably juvenile juxtaposition it comes off like a Hallmark card parody written by the staffers at "Cracked." Read full review
20
Washington PostDesson Thomson
This David Spade comedy breaks an ankle, ruptures several knee ligaments and hits the dirt harder than a felled linebacker. Best thing you can do for this movie? Leave it writhing in the throes of forced humor. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
The best bit, however, is not even in the movie, but in the film’s end credits: an expletive-filled parody of We Are the World in which a host of has-beens croon about their halcyon days as child stars. Read full review
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