TV child star of the '70s, Dickie Roberts is now 35 and parking cars. Craving to regain the spotlight, he auditions for a role of a normal guy, but the director quickly sees he is anything but normal. Desperate to win the part, Dickie hires a family to help him replay his childhood and assume the identity of an average, everyday kid.
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.
– Richard Roeper,
Ebert & Roeper,
8 Sep 2003
rotten:
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.
– David Edelstein,
Slate,
8 Sep 2003
rotten:
Ouch! Spade goes sweet and gooey.
– Peter Travers,
Rolling Stone,
8 Sep 2003
rotten:
You sense Spade is scared of what finding too much of himself in Dickie might mean.
– Alex Pappademas,
Village Voice,
9 Sep 2003
fresh:
Child is father to the man in this often funny, but just as often ham-fisted, untrue Hollywood story.