The Ringer

Last night Liz, Carly and I were going to see Tristan & Isolde, but instead saw The Ringer. Boy was that ever a good choice. I remember seeing previews for this way back in the summer of '04 while going to those free viewings of Napoleon Dynamite. Everybody was wondering what this movie was about because all you really saw was Johnny Knoxville getting thrown down the steps of the church by the priest. I never really thought much of it. Then I heard that Johnny Knoxville was pretending to be retarded in order to fix the Special Olympics and saw the previews with him practicing in front of the mirror. I immediately thought of the South Park episode where Cartman tries to do the exact same thing. In fact, it's funny thinking about this cause there was another episode where a kid is trying to do something original and dastardly only everything has already been done on The Simpsons. Anyways, I kinda wrote it off because of Knoxville's involvement with Jackass. I just assumed this would be degrading and very unkind. Well, after a while I eventually read that the Special Olympics was actually endorsing this movie. I also saw an interview with Knoxville where he stated that everything mean and degrading happens only to him, the "bad" guy in the story. It was after this that I was actually ready to give this one a chance, and am I ever glad I did. This movie will be hard to beat as my favorite comedy of the year - and it's only January. The movie starts off with Knoxville trying to be the good guy and eventually needing a lot of cash to take care of a problem (typical story). Then his sleazy uncle, who is also in need of money, comes up with the idea they can bet on the Special Olympics. He also wants Johnny because he did decently in track at his very small high school (typical story). Where this story starts to become un-typical and awesome is when he gets to the Olympics. He soon starts hanging out with a group of guys, some of which are mentally challenged actors and others who are not - Bill Chott, Geoffrey Arend(Garden State and Super Troopers) and Jed Rees (Chuck from Elizabethtown). There's scene after scene of hilarity that kept our whole theater laughing outloud again and again. At one point the other athletes realize Knoxville is a fake and they inform him how they too 'act' retarded to manipulate people, get hugs from girls, etc. I was a little doubtful at first, but this movie truly represents the Special Olympics and all of the mentally challenged people as people. So many times this people group, among others, is dehumanized time after time. There are even examples of this in the film and those people really come off as insensitive wankers. I would highly suggest this movie as something to go see. I can say already this will be on my top 10 list for 2006.