Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)

A thirty-something former child star hires a foster family to re-create the childhood he never had.

Director:

Sam Weisman

Writers:

Fred Wolf, David Spade

Stars:

David Spade, Mary McCormack, Alyssa Milano

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Spade	...	Dickie Roberts
Mary McCormack	...	Grace Finney
Craig Bierko	...	George Finney
Scott Terra	...	Sam Finney
Jenna Boyd	...	Sally Finney
John Farley	...	Referee
Bobby Slayton	...	Commentator
Michael Buffer	...	Michael Buffer
Fred Wolf	...	Dickie's Corner Man
Alyssa Milano	...	Cyndi
Emmanuel Lewis	...	Himself
Joey Diaz	...	Emmanuel's Entourage (as Joey 'Coco' Diaz)
Kevin Grevioux	...	Emmanuel's Entourage
Brian Clark	...	Guy in Car
Leif Garrett	...	Leif Garrett

Storyline

Once, he was on top of the world as a popular child actor on TV. Now, he's Hollywood's punchline about everything wrong with people who were famous as children. All Dickie Roberts wants to do is find that one gig that will restore his honor and everyone's love of him, so after learning that Rob Reiner's making an ambitious new movie destined to sweep the Oscars, Dickie's first in line to audition. He walks out having learned he certainly looks the part but can't act it... yet, owing to his very unusual childhood. To research the role, Dickie embarks on a bizarre scheme to live with a suburban family to see how the average American child lives, having them put him up as their "son". But once his gloves are off, Dickie discovers how great it is to be part of a true family, and whether he gets the part or not, his attempt at method acting will certainly change his life forever.

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Plot Keywords:

white panties | panties | marilyn monroe character | hare krishna | 2000s | 

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Taglines:

50 million people used to watch him on TV. Now he washes their cars.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language and drug references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dickie Roberts: (Former) Child Star

Filming Locations:

741 S Hudson Ave, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,660,540, 7 September 2003, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$22,734,486, 23 November 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Happy Madison Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Co-Writers Fred Wolf and David Spade originally wrote a skit in the 1990s for Saturday Night Live (1975) about a child star rampage, spoofing The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for when Macaulay Culkin was hosting, but it was cut. The idea was later pitched for The WB, but they turned it down. It was eventually re-written and turned into this movie, originally written as a dark comedy with more references to drug use by child stars.

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Goofs

Leif Garrett tells Dickie that Reiner's new movie would be similar to when Frank Sinatra had a film career comeback and won the Oscar for "From Here To Eternity." When Sinatra did "From Here to Eternity" his acting career was still pretty fresh and did not do many films in the years prior. So, although his Oscar win was highly impressive, it was not a career revival.

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Quotes

Sally Finney: Brick wall, waterfall, Dickie thinks he got it all but he don't, and I do so Boom with that attitude. Peace punch, Capt'n Crunch, I've got something you can't touch. Bang-bang choo-choo train, wind me up I do my thing. No Reeses Pieces, 7-Up, you mess with me, I'll mess you up.

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Crazy Credits

At the very end of the credits, David Spade can be heard in voice-over, talking directly to the audience. Among other things, he encourages moviegoers to abandon their trash in their seats, and accuses someone in the audience of farting (then admits it was he).

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Screenings: The Best and Worst Movies of the Summer 2011 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Don't Give Up on Us
by Tony Macaulay
Performed by David Soul
Courtesy of David Soul
By Arrangement with Celebrity Licensing Inc.

User Reviews

My thoughts on the movie

If your into short quirky jokes like I am then you'll have no problem at all getting the biggest kick out of this movie. I couldn't stop laughing which may or may not be a good thing. I truly think that the number of stars it was given is horrible, of course unless you saw it with a younger child and didn't think it was a very appropriate movie or you just don't like good comedy. There was a very large amount of inappropriate words that were in the movie that young kids probably should not hear, but that's the risk of letting a child under the age of 13 see the movie. For everyone who is saying that the movie is bad, you should just stick with a regular non-comedy movie and not give a bad rep to this movie. I give it a 9/10