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.

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.

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.

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

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