The Ringer - Review

I have no idea how this movie got the green light. Then again, this was 2005. However, I still can't imagine the writer of this film walking into a studio and pitching the idea of a guy pretending to be retarded to rig the Special Olympics. Like, there is dumb humour, and then there is plain bad taste. This movie is covered in bad taste, however, TRIGGER WARNING, I found myself laughing at this movie. I KNOW! I'M SORRY! I can hear all my liberal classmates acting all disgusted, but I'm sorry, there were some jokes that made me laugh. Plus, although the whole movie is making fun of the retardation some people have, the down-syndrome actors they cast as Steve aka Jeffy's friend's are all loveable people with some pretty good acting chops. Johnny Knoxville on the other hand is a very weird case. He is an extremely likable dude and charismatic, but a terrible actor. It's hard to explain. You like him although his delivery on some lines is absolutely horrible. You know what else is horrible, the plot. As soon as Steve aka Jeffy seeing Katherine Heigl's character and "falls-in-love", you know exactly where this film is going. Exactly. Beat for Beat. Yes, the location and the taste in jokes is definitely... beyond offensive, it's a story you've seen many many times before. So if the plot is beyond recycled and the story is based on pure offensive humour, how come this film doesn't get an awful score... I'm really really really really really sorry guys... I laughed a couple times.