The Ringer

The Ringer (Director: Barry W. Blaustein)

















Blaustein directed the wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, but he got his start writing for SNL in the eighties and he's penned several Eddie Murphy movies including Boomerang, The Nutty Professor and its sequel, and Coming to America. Let's be fair, he also wrote this year's horrible The Honeymooners. Written by Ricky Blitt, who has done a few "Family Guy" episodes.

Speaking of "South Park" episodes, this movie comes to us a year or so after that series had Cartman pretend to mentally challenged to try to win at the Special Olympics. But, as it turns out, this movie was conceived before the episode aired, and I've heard offhand that it was Trey Parker and Matt Stone who are the actual ripper-offers. I don't know if there's foul play involved with any of the creators of these two similar storylines, but I know one thing: That episode of "South Park" was freaking classic. Especially since it also dealt with steroids.

I almost had no hope for this in the beginning:

In this, Steve Barker (Johnny Knoxville) is a guy who hates his job, is about to get a promotion, and as his first task he is to fire the janitor, a task he doesn't have the heart to do. So, he gives the guy a job mowing his lawn, and he has a mowing accident, and his fingers are chopped off one of his hands, and he has no insurance, and the surgery would cost like $30,000.

But then:

Obviously, Steve doesn't have the cash. And his uncle Gary (Brian Cox) is indebted to some bookies for $40,000 so he can't help out. But then a scheme is hatched that Steve enter the Special Olympics, and place a huge bet on one of the stud Special athletes not winning. Steve starts acting mentally challenged, and he passes somewhat. But when he meets Special Olympics assistant Lynn (Katherine Heigl), he lets his guard down a bit, and the other special athletes start getting wise.

Hold on for a second. This is Katherine Heigl:

Heigl hasn't been in enough movies. The last I saw her in was that crappy Valentine movie. She hit the scene with My Father, The Hero and she appeared to be, at the time, an emerging young star. But lately she got a break by getting "Grey's Anatomy."

Tell me you don't want to have children with this woman. This picture is also pretty tame compared to some you can find with a google search.

Anyway, like any hetero, Steve falls in love with Lynn, but his act, of course, makes landing her difficult, and plus she has another one of those "movie boyfriends." You know, he's a handsome dude but he's a total asshole, and you'd never think that someone with a heart like her would ever date a man like him? Oh well.

But yeah, the other mentally challenged guys (a mixture of actors and actual mentally challenged people) figure Steve out, and he tells them his story, and they actually want him to continue, because the awesome perennial gold medalist Jimmy (complete with his own entourage) always wins and they hate him because he's a prick.

This is way funnier than I ever gave it credit for possibly being before I watched it. There are some sight gags and funny throwaway lines that I never dreamed would come to play after the first ten minutes of this. And the Farrelly Brothers, who produced, got full approval from the Special Olympics to do this movie. There's nothing mean-spirited in here, although Brian Cox's character delivers most of the insensitive lines. I'm sure it will piss off some people. And a couple of people I saw it with said they felt wrong for laughing in some spots.

Anyway, a guilty pleasure.