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
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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