Quick Review: Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star

Probably the sheer, dumb, boldness of this humor will coax at least a couple of laughs from most audience members, but the overall movie is embarrassingly bad. It looks like a low-budget quickie, with very little effort spent on cinematography or editing. The characters are little more than cartoon characters, with no real personalities or any kind of genuine emotional connection. It's a mystery as to how these people ever evolved.

Bucky Larson (Nick Swardson) is a very naïve grocery bagger in Iowa, totally ignorant in all the ways of sex. After losing his job, his friends show him a porn film from the 1970s, and he discovers that his parents were once porn stars. He travels to Los Angeles to fulfill his "destiny." There he meets a misfit waitress (Christina Ricci) and a terrible roommate (Kevin Nealon), and prepares for fame. But his miniature equipment and lack of experience make him a laughingstock -- until washed-up director Miles Deep (Don Johnson) takes him under his wing and turns him into a sensation, much to the chagrin of established porn star Dick Shadow (Stephen Dorff). Can Bucky keep sight of what's important in life?

The crude jokes probably amused the cast and crew behind the scenes, but they do not translate to the finished product. Most of them simply fall flat. Moreover, the movie fails to find some reason for or connection with its porn industry setting; it's too dirty to have anything to say, but too tame to be truly titillating. If nothing else, Christina Ricci and Don Johnson manage some moments of sweetness, even if they're not terribly funny.



Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
* out of ****
With Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stephen Dorff, Ido Mosseri, Kevin Nealon, Edward Herrmann, Miriam Flynn, Mario Joyner, Curtis Armstrong, Pauly Shore
Written by Allen Covert, Adam Sandler, Nick Swardson
Directed by Tom Brady
Rated R for pervasive crude sexual content, language and some nudity.
96 minutes
September 9, 2011