Ricky 1

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

I would have never have even known about the film if it weren't for the ever famous James Rolf reviewing it, this is... Terrible! The jokes are as about as lame and cheap shot as the ones in Epic Movie, this is what a 80's Selzter and Frieberg film with no budget would be like! I'm surprised they even released this film, with a budget of about $20 I still doubt it made a profit.

I think what makes this worse is films like these are getting a budget today, even if the film disributors gave them a "$20" budget they're still stupid, did the creators really think the viewers would laugh at immature Sex and anti-religious jokes?

Conclusion: Awful -Cybersaur

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.

"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.