Ricky Stanicky (2024) review

When they were children, Dean (Zac Efron), JT (Andrew Santino) and Wes (Jermaine Fowler) created an imaginary person named "Ricky Stanicky" that they blamed all their misdeeds on (or used to dodge personal responsibilities), except that inside joke backfires as adults once "Ricky" gets invited to a bris, so they hire "trained actor" (and Atlantic City-based nightclub singer) Rod Rimestead (John Cena) to play the part ... and then they can't get him out of their lives.  The IMDb lists eight individuals as being responsible for the story and screenplay, but none of them can come up with anything better than Rod doing X-rated covers of popular songs, the gang accidentally drugging a Rabbi (Jeff Ross) with ketamine, getting the exceptionally long hair of cousin Carly (Apple Farrelly, daughter of the director) jammed in a pinsetter or having JT and Dean's boss Summerhayes (William H. Macy) unconsciously use sexual gestures during presentations.  There's a half-hearted message in there about self-actualization - Rod "fakes it until he makes it" and earns new friends - and the lads somehow escape actual retribution for their fibbing.  I'm sure there's a grad student out there right now working on a term paper that has to do with the Continuous Emasculation of John Cena - at one point, he's dressed up like Britney Spears and slurping spilled booze off a cardboard box - but if he's game, so be it.