Dickie Roberts 2003

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: There are almost enough fresh elements to make the movie worthwhile. Read more

Charles Savage, Miami Herald: After a few initial pratfalls, the humor gives way to a saccharine pathos as Dickie is supposed to be growing up emotionally and becoming mutually attached to the family. Unbelievable conversations and stupid dance numbers replace the humor. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This movie is better than Lost and Found and Joe Dirt, but that's like saying a kick in the shins is better than a poke in the eye or a kick to the groin. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Director Sam Weisman knows the formulas and so do Spade and Wolf -- perhaps too well. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: A nauseating bowl of treacle about a man who discovers heaven in his own backyard. Read more

Bob Townsend, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Child is father to the man in this often funny, but just as often ham-fisted, untrue Hollywood story. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: A lot of it is painfully unfunny, but often for bizarre if not entertaining reasons. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: This sleek and sunny comedy is an all-too-rare example of smart and inventive Hollywood filmmaking. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: A sweetly winning domestic comedy. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: An inside joke rather than a funny one. Read more

Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail: Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star isn't so much a movie as a 90-minute Trivial Pursuit contest to name bit players from TV's distant past. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: A comedy that's actually funny. Read more

John Dentino, L.A. Weekly: Saturday-morning special material. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Dickie Roberts doesn't fail totally, but Spade is such a lackadaisical comedian that what does end up having any appeal at all always seems to have happened by accident. Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: David Spade has two-thirds of a comic idea, and the jokes occasionally hit one of their hundred moving targets. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Feels like an amusing Saturday Night Live sketch that overstays its welcome by a good 90 minutes. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There are laughs, to be sure, and some gleeful supporting performances, but after a promising start the movie sinks in a bog of sentiment. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: I often found myself laughing in spite of no one, not even myself. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a standard joke in screwy teen comedies, but for some reason it seems kind of fresh here. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Just a platform for Spade to tell smutty jokes to kids, fall off bicycles, puncture waterbeds, and, oh yes, learn the real meaning of family. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A joke that gets beaten to death in the first five minutes. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Daphne Gordon, Toronto Star: This film is not the worst Spade has ever made. Remember Joe Dirt? Unfortunately, Dickie Roberts is just another forgettable film in his desperately-seeking -a-feature -film-career oeuvre. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The movie may appeal to fans of Spade's trademark smug and blandly disaffected comic style. And his delivery occasionally fits the material. But too many segments are flat and schlocky. Read more

Alex Pappademas, Village Voice: You sense Spade is scared of what finding too much of himself in Dickie might mean. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Leave it writhing in the throes of forced humor. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Made with consummate carelessness but with occasional moments of knowing humor. Read more