| Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Tom Brady |
| Produced by | Barry Bernardi Allen Covert David Dorfman Jack Giarraputo |
| Written by | Adam Sandler Allen Covert Nick Swardson |
| Starring | Nick Swardson Christina Ricci Don Johnson Stephen Dorff |
| Music by | Waddy Wachtel |
| Cinematography | Michael Barrett |
| Editing by | Jason Gourson |
| Studio | Happy Madison Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 9, 2011 |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Under $10 million[1] |
| Box office | $2,529,395[2] |
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star is a 2011 American sex comedy film produced by Happy Madison Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Adam Sandler, Allen Covert, and Nick Swardson co-wrote the script and Tom Brady directed. It was released on September 9, 2011.
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The story centers on a small-town child-like man, Bucky Larson (Nick Swardson), who stumbles upon a family secret: His quiet and reserved parents (Edward Hermann and Miriam Flynn) were famous porn stars in the 1970s. This motivates him to leave northern Iowa for Hollywood, hoping to follow in their footsteps and fulfill his destiny as the biggest adult-film star in the world. Unfortunately he lacks two things, any idea of how to become a porn star like his parents, and a decent sized penis. However his incredibly small penis ends up providing him with fame due to it making women appreciate the size of their own partner's penis more. Along the way he meets many odd characters, a local waitress who is very kindhearted, an overly selfish roommate, a failing porn director, and his own polar opposite and later antagonist, a porn star who goes by the nickname "Dick Shadow" due to his massive penis size.
The film was not pre-screened for critics, but was universally panned on opening weekend. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 0% of 32 critics have given the film positive reviews, with a rating average of 1.6 out of 10.[3] On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 9% based on reviews from 13 critics.[4]
Orlando Sentinel critic Roger Moore stated "the concept, and the movie that comes from it aren't funny. And second, Swardson wasn't any more born to be a star than his character".[5] New York Times critic A.O. Scott stated in his review that Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star was so bad that it "may have been made ... to console every actor who has ever been in a movie that is a little less bad than this one. Let me put the matter another way: this may be the worst movie Pauly Shore has ever been in. Think about that. If you dare, go on Netflix and test the hypothesis."[6] Critic Nathan Rabin gave the film a Dā[7] in his initial review, then noted that "Bucky Larson was panned so viciously that my Dā ranked on the generous side of critical appraisals" when revisiting the film a second time for his My Year of Flops column, where he cited it as an example of a "shitty miracle, [a film where] everything goes awry. It's not a matter of one sorry element dragging the rest down; it's every terrible component amplifying the awfulness of everything else", later calling it "one of the ugliest, most misguided comedies in recent memory."[8]
Bucky Larson was a box office failure, earning only $1.4 million to land at #15 for its opening weekend. After two weeks of release, the film had earned a total of $2.5 million, after which it was pulled from theatres.[9]
The film's budget was under $10 million.[1]
Swardson defended Bucky Larson in an October 2011 interview, in which he blamed its poor financial showing on the difficulties of advertising the material: "To promote an R-rated movie, with commercials, with this character, it was just really, really hard. It was hard to get the movie across to people. The trailer in theaters was really tame because we couldn't show any of the insanity, and even if we did it, it wouldn't hit because it had no context. It was just really frustrating." He predicted the film would find more appreciation on DVD.[10]
Swardson also dismissed the negative reviews. "I knew the critics were going to bury us ... None of those reviewers was psyched to see Bucky Larson and laugh. They go in with the mentality 'fuck these guys for making another movie.' They go in there to kind of headhunt. It makes me laugh because it's just so embarrassing. It makes them look like such morons."[10]
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