Ricky 1

I was interested in seeing this movie if only because the Angry Video Game Nerd used this as the film he would review upon challenge by the Nostalgia Critic. I had certainly never heard of this before and it makes sense. I find it amazing that I could find more than one VHS cover of this awful film. What really makes this movie painful is that it's one of the shoddiest looking movies I've seen in my whole life. The lighting effects are outright terrible. Everything is filmed in the dark and the quality looks like it was made in the 1960's, not the 1980's! This was released the same year as the B-movie "Alien From LA" and that movie looks gorgeous compared to this. Basically, this is a feature length spoof of "Rocky".

I guess this was the time spoof movies were the worst things we as humans ever made. This is basically a lengthy sequence of unfunny unrelated scenes that amount to nothing. There's a subplot about Ricky's girlfriend leading a rape therapy group. There's also an exploding doormat plot and a plot about some parody of "The Godfather" talking about porn. Not only does none of this have anything to do with Rocky, it has nothing to do with anything at all. There's one scene where Ricky mentions how his girlfriend doesn't like to see him box. We then see a photograph of her covering her face with her hand. Is that the joke? It's really hard to even tell if half the stuff in this movie is a joke or meant to be taken seriously. Either way, it's horrible and I am so glad this film has faded into obscurity and you will never be unfortunate enough to watch it. 1/2*

My review was written in November 1988 after watching the movie on Tapeworm video cassette.

"Ricky 1" is a cute spoof of the "Rocky" films, made five years ago and debuting on video cassette after failing to achieve theatrical distribution.

Helmer Bill Naud adopts the visual punning approach of the "Airplane" buys in limning the episodic tale of Ricky Wanero (played effectively by Michael Michaud, who doesn't resemble Sly Stallone but captures the aspiring fighter's mannerisms and vocal patter).

A perennial loser, he agrees to give up the fight game to please girlfriend Angela (Maggie Hughes), who works at a crisis center. Ricky gets a job working in a fish market, supplementing his income by working as a gigolo.

Pic builds to the big championship fight with the Silver Shadow, used as an excuse for goofy sight gags.

Enthusiastic cast, many of whom essay multiple roles, enlivens an okay low-budgeter.

I personally never heard of this movie until AVGN reviewed it back in 2008. It's essentially a god-awful Naked Gun-esque comedy with a no-name cast. The so-called sight gags are just unfunny and painful, including a scene that parodies The Godfather with the Corelone look-alike just mumbling and groaning for the filmmakers to fool the audience into thinking he's just that hard to understand. Half of the film actually has nothing to do with the story. I can obviously tell why this was released straight to video, probably to avoid a lawsuit from ol' Sly himself.

Seriously, who thought of a spoof of Rocky? It's like spoofing the Bourne series and calling it The Bourne Retardation. Like the Rocky films, it revolves around a regular schmoe who receives an opportunity to fight it out with the champion of the world. When people wonder why it went right to video and never entered theatres, it's because the film was so bad. no one would want to waste 90 minutes of their valuable time watching some bad acting rolled into a bad film. Wouldn't someone prefer to dance on that giant piano from Big with Robert Loggia? Wouldn't someone prefer to drink a lot of Red Bull and watch the news? I know i would if it prevented me from watching this film again And to think, they thought they could say it was better than the Airplane! movies. So if you're curiously wandering around a video store and stumble across this film, yell WITCH!, run in a circle three times, then grab it and light it on fire. Ricky 1 1/10

It's a decent parody with some hilarious gags, amazing performances, great sound effects and adorable characters.