Nick Swardson stars in his most craziest, perverse and sexually repulsive role that will either make you laugh or leave you feeling disgusted. While not recommended for the masses, for those who enjoy Happy Madison Production films and love the films that tend to be quite moronic in humor, may find “Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star” more to their liking.
© 2011 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
YEAR OF FILM RELEASE: 2011
DURATION: 97 minutes
DVD INFORMATION: English, French, Spanish, Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital, 1:85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Thai
COMPANY: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: January 17, 2012
Directed by Tom Brady
Written by Adam Sandler, Allen Covert and Nick Swardson
Produced by Allen Covert, David Dorfman, Jack Giarraputo, Adam Sandler, Nick Swardson
Co-Producer: Betsy Danbury
Music by Waddy Wachtel
Cinematography by Michael Barrett
Edited by Jason Gourson
Casting by Lisa London, Catherine Stroud
Production Design by Dina Lipton
Set Decoration by Halina Siwolop
Costume Design by Halina Siwolop
Starring:
Nick Swardson as Bucky Larson
Christina Ricci as Kathy Mcgee
Don Johnson as Miles Deep
Stephen Dorff as Dick Shadow
Ido Mosseri as J. Day
Kevin Nealon as Gary
Edward Hermann as Jeremiah Larson
Miriam Flynn as Debbie Larson
Mario Joyner as Claudio
Tyler Spindel as Jimmy
Meredith Giangrande as Blueberry
Nicholas Turturro as Antonio
Bucky [Nick Swarsdon] is a small town grocery bagger, going nowhere in life until he discovers that his conservative parents were once adult film stars! Armed with the belief that he has found his destiny, Bucky packs up and heads out to LA, hoping to follow in his parents footsteps. Also starring Christina Ricci, Don Johnson and Stephen Dorff.Â
In 2011, Happy Madison Productions (known for many comedy films which include “Zookeeper”, “You Don’t Mess with Zohan”, “50 First Dates”, “Little Nicky”, “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo”) returned with “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star”.
Directed by Tom Brady (“The Hot Chick”, “The Comebacks”) and written by Allen Covert (“Happy Gilmore”, “Little Nicky”, “50 First Dates”, “Mr. Deeds”), the film would star comedian Nick Swardson (“You Don’t Mess with the Zohan”, “Grandma’s Boy”, “Just Go With It”) as the main character Bucky.
While the film didn’t do well in the box office, typically certain Happy Madison films do well with a video release. And in Jan. 2011, the Blu-ray and DVD for “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” will be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
“Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” is a film about a supermarket bagger named Bucky.
Bucky has unusual features with his large buck teeth and ’70s style bowl haircut and lives in a small town in Iowa which features its townspeople as backwoods, rednecks. One day, while working… Bucky gets into an argument with his manager, who accidentally hits himself and blames Bucky for striking him. Despite Bucky never laying a finger on him, he loses his dream job at the supermarket.
While visiting his friends, down and dejected, his friends discuss about masturbating to porn films, something that Bucky has never done. And while his friends teach him how to masturbate while watching a porn, everyone including Bucky is shocked to see that the people in the film are Bucky’s parents Jeremiah (played by Edward Hermann) and Debbie (played by Miriam Flynn).
But for Bucky, seeing his parents in a porn film, makes him believe that being the son of two porn stars, perhaps that is his calling…to become one.
So, Bucky says goodbye to his parents and takes off to Los Angeles, California to become a porn star.
When arriving, he visits a diner where he meets Kathy McGee (played by Christina Ricci, “Monster”, “Sleepy Hollow”, “The Opposite of Sex”), a kind waitress who loves her job serving food. When she finds out that Bucky is trying to be an actor but has no place to stay, she gets him a temporary place to stay at her apartment complex with a friend (and maniac) named Gary (played by Kevin Nealon, “Saturday Night Live”, “Just Go With It”).
So, with a place to stay in Los Angeles, now it’s time for Bucky to shine and try out for auditions. And so, he auditions for a film in front of Claudio (played by Mario Joyner) and others but thinks the audition is for a porn film, so he begins stripping off his clothes and masturbates in front of the people casting the film which shocks and disgusts them.
Claudio approaches Bucky and finds out his parents are the popular pornstars from the ’70s that he is familiar with and learns from Bucky that he wants to become a porn star. So, Claudio decides to help Bucky get into the industry by introducing him to popular porn star Dick Shadow (played by Stephen Dorff, “The Immortals”, “Public Enemies”, “Blade”) and take him to a party full of people who are in the porn industry.
So, when Bucky meets Dick and tells him about his ambition to become a porn star, Dick asks to see Bucky’s “junk”, he is shocked that his penis so small and he is quite hairy below and ridicules him in front of everyone. Meanwhile, trying to get into the party is porn director Miles Deep (“Miami Vice”, “Nash Bridges”, “Machete”), who is turned away.
After being ridiculed by Dick Shadow, Bucky feels that his chances to become a porn star has dwindled. But listening to their conversation is Miles Deep who decides to give this unusual and unlikely porn star a chance to make films, after finds out that he is the son of two popular porn stars that he is familiar with.
So, Miles and his crew give Bucky a chance to make a film. And when they ask him to strip off his clothes, they wonder if he has a vagina because he is so hairy and literally has no penis. But when Bucky starts masturbating, because of his inexperience, he starts ejaculating all over the place. Miles believes that Bucky has no chance at becoming a porn star and tells his assistant to do something with the footage they caught.
The assistant does an edit and uploads it to PornTube and the video becomes viral. Immediately after seeing the numbers skyrocket, Miles decides to pitch Bucky Larson to porn distributors and despite being reluctant, they give Bucky a chance and sure enough, he becomes a major hit and his porn videos begin to sell like hotcakes.
And while things look great for Bucky, he eventually gets closer and closer to Kathy and both begin to fall in love with each other.
But will Bucky’s fame affect his chances with Kathy and what happens when Dick Shadow becomes jealous that Bucky is attracting all the attention for his porn videos?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” is presented in 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen and English, French, Spanish and Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital. It is important to note that those who want the best quality for video and audio, will definitely want to go with the Blu-ray version of this film.
Subtitles are in English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Thai.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” comes with the following special features:
- Laughter is Contagious – (5:16) Outtakes and hilarious things that took place behind-the-scenes.
- Behind the Teeth – (11:22) Behind-the-scenes on the filming of “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star”. Interview with the director Tom Brady, writer Allen Covert and more. We are introduced to the various cast members who talk about their role in the film.
- Gary: Tough Customer – (4:20) Kevin Nealon behind-the-scenes as the character Gary and the crazy things that took place during filming.
- Bucky Sparkles – (2:30) The making of Bucky’s orgasm scenes and various characters and talent talk about how crazy it was to film those scenes.
“Bucky Larson” is moronic humor that may not appease the masses but for those who are familiar with Happy Madison films, including the bad ones, and enjoy those films…may enjoy “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star”.
Let’s face it! Many Happy Madison Production films are despised by many film critics. Sure, many tend to go back to the earlier years of HMP films such as “Little Nicky”, “50 First Dates”, “Click” as being enjoyable but for many critics, films such as “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo”, “You Don’t Mess with Zohan”, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Zoo Keeper” as being films that are so moronic, that they are bashed and given the worst ratings.
And while the HMP film “Strange Wilderness” still ranks as the worst commercial film I have ever seen and have reviewed, my stance towards Happy Madison Films have been a bit more supportive than others. Mainly because I’m more tolerant towards moronic humor (and yes, at times I find it amusing) and accept the fact that there is a cult following for these films maybe not so much in theaters but moreso on video.
Which leads me to “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star”. Nick Swardson is one of those comedians that makes me laugh and I have seen his live comedy acts and films that he has starred in to know that it may not be for everyone but he’s a person who is willing to take on roles, no matter how self-deprecating it may be.
And in this case, he takes on the role of an enormously buck toothed porn star with a tiny penis who has become popular because of his tiny asset. It was quite obvious that the character was not going to go well for the public. The look of Bucky reminds me of a grown up version of the kid on the Dutch Boy paint ads of the ’70s and of course, watching the trailer, there was no denying that this film was going to be moronic. But would it be moronic in the worst way possible (ala “Strange Wilderness”) or would it be moronic that will give you a few or a lot of laughs.
And this is where it is quite subjective, depending on the individual. I can tell you right now that this film is not going to please many. From it’s opening scenes in the backwoods of Iowa, where a man puts peanut butter all over his penis and lets his farm animals lick him to seeing Bucky being taught how to masturbate to porn films and seeing his own parents on video, well definitely not go well with many viewers.
But for those who find it funny as much as fart jokes (and yes, there are fart jokes in this film as well), will probably find “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” to be their type of film.
For me, what I found so unusual but so amusingly funny was the faces that Bucky would give during his orgasm moments. Adam Sandler wanted Swardson to show extreme pain during those scenes and thus, to see a character floundering, screaming with pain during those scenes is embarrassingly funny.
And this is what this film does…it takes things that probably a lot of guys (and women) who have see porn films and makes them feel uncomfortable by having this small penis porn star with the most menacing orgasm onscreen and somehow manages to ejaculate all over the place.
It’s no surprise that some may find this film too uncomfortable but obviously it’s those “unspoken” guy things that the writers wanted to make fun of. If you have a potty humor, you’ll find “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” to be crazy, moronic but funny.
While others who came into this film thinking it will be another “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star” may be appalled.
With that being said, “Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star” is the worst performing Happy Madison film in the box office, but review-wise, even the last Happy Madison films such as “Jack and Jill”, “Zookeeper” and “Grownups” have not done well with film critics but yet managed to make millions in the box office. While Adam Sandler and Kevin James manage to attract an audience, unfortunately, comedian Nick Swardson has been unable to capitalize, but I don’t think it’s more about Swardson but more of the character role and an unusual character trying to become a pornstar.
As for the DVD release, there are quite a few fun special features and if you are looking for the best video and audio quality, definitely go with the Blu-ray release. But the DVD still looks good and dialogue is absolutely clear and understandable.
Overall, “Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star” may not be the best Happy Madison Production film out there, but it’s definitely not the worst that I have seen (“Strange Wilderness” is much more worse than this film). I found myself laughing at the more sexually repulsive moments of the film and there are many of those insane, crazy moments as well.
While not recommended for the masses, for those who enjoy Happy Madison Production films and love the films that tend to be quite moronic in humor, may find “Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star” more to their liking.
