Ricky 1

"Ricky 1", an amateurish Rocky spoof, is a misfire from beginning to end. It's not even fun in a campy sense; it's laborious to sit through. Even the moments which attempt comedy fall flat because of bad direction, sluggish pacing, and poor cinematography/lighting (besides conceptually not being very funny to begin with). The plot is simultaneously overly simple and hard to follow because it keeps cutting to random side plots like a Godfather parody and whatever's going on with Ricky's love interest's crisis center.

I know it's tempting to see the film out of morbid curiosity because of James Rolfe's review of it, but you should just stick to that. He highlights the quirkiest scenes and makes fun of them in less than ten minutes so you won't waste an hour and half watching the actual film.

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.

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

This is whats frustrating about the academy award process in Hollywood...how Guy Hutchinson's performance could be overlooked..is astounding. This actor captures all of compassion and pity of the fool...that he is portraying. I guess because this was'nt a box office success...that sadly a good piece of work like this is overlooked again....just like Wayne in Genghis Khan and Nolte in the Hulk...we look at the revenue of a movie and not the quality. At times throughout this movie..... I just couldn't believe that it was actually a movie and not a reality show...thats how deeply this movie affected me and my family. Sometimes I think we as film goer's are more interested in the money spent on the film and not the overall movement in the bowels of depth that the actors are capable of accomplishing.