Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star
2011, R, 96 min. Directed by Tom Brady. Starring Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stephen Dorff.
REVIEWED By Kimberley Jones, Fri., Sept. 16, 2011
Bucky Larson starts off with a barnyard animal sucking off a Midwestern farmer, and it goes downhill from there. Good taste was never in the cards – not in a Happy Madison comedy about a wannabe porn star – but what does startle is how tiresome it all is. Stand-up comedian Nick Swardson – best known for a recurring role on Reno 911! and more recently seen hardly making a dent in this summer's 30 Minutes or Less – co-wrote and headlines as Bucky Larson, an Iowa naif with buck teeth and a Prince Valiant haircut. Despite being utterly unschooled in sex ed, Bucky resolves to go to Hollywood to become a star in "nude movies," just like his parents did in the Seventies. The deeply uncharismatic Swardson never breaks character, and I suppose such commitment is admirable, but what a bore. The "big" twist is that when Bucky finally gets his break, turns out he has a "baby dick." It's a handy metaphor for the film at large: Nothing to see here, kids.
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Marjorie Baumgarten, Dec. 13, 2002
Bucky Larson: Born To Be a Star, Tom Brady, Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stephen Dorff
