Wow! Such a good movie.

Overrated and overhyped

Absolutely Fantastic

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This movie came along at a strange time pro wrestling. Pro wrestling had become the hottest thing on premium TV with the years leading up to the this movie's production being dubbed "The Monday Night Wars" due to WCW's Monday Nitro running straight up against WWE's Monday Night Raw. In late 1996, Hulk Hogan's morph into Hollywood Hogan made the company number 1 and Nitro beat regularly beat Raw for almost 2 years straight. It was also an incredibly profitable time for the Time Warner company. Newer rival stars like the WWE's The Rock and Steve Austin were getting offers for movies and television so WCW management at the time decided it was time to shoot a film. It was released by spring 2000. It starred Scott Caan, David Arquette, Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, "Diamond" Dallas Paige, and Rose McGowan. Sean (Scott Caan) and Gordie (David Arquette) run a sewage business in the town of Lusk, Wyoming. They're huge fans of WCW. They drive to Cheyenne to see a live Monday Nitro broadcast. Their favorite wrestler, WCW champion Jimmy King (Oliver Platt), has one too many backstage arguments with WCW President Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano in a strange cowboy outfit). Sinclair decides that Paige is going over King in their title match that night. When they wrestle, Paige shoots on King and with help from some outside interference gets the win. Sean and Gordie are devastated by this and it puts them on a journey to find King and help resurrect his career. Along the way, they find out their hero is a drunken lout who ran out on his family. I don't know what the writers and producers of this film were thinking of when they pictured a pro wrestling fan. Kayfabe, wrestling fiction, has been a well-known part of that business for decades, even before Vince McMahon's admissions about the business in 1989. The Sean and Gordie characters are too stupid to know this or else live in denial. You even see the acknowledgment of kayfabe when Titus Sincalir is discussing the main event's finish with DDP in front of the other WCW wrestlers before taking DDP aside to change it. During the match scene, you can also see Paige and King calling spots to each other. The whole smile and wink backhanded approach to acknowledging kayfabe is a little insulting to pro wrestling fans and it seems that the writers think they are all man-boys living with their parents. I think they pictured these characters as innocent and enthusiastic, which Scott Caan plays well enough, but David Arquette may have been at his most obnoxious here as Gordie. He was a horrible casting choice. Joe Pantoliano was another odd choice, his clothing and wig were too much of a distraction. He would've been better playing it up as a New Jersey-born East Coast sleazeball in an expensive suit like Paul Heyman. Eric Bischoff could've easily played himself with his comic book villain grin as the evil boss. Rose McGowan is cast as a Nitro Girl named Sasha who takes a romantic interest in Gordie but she's just eye candy. Martin Landau has a memorable cameo as Sal Bandini, an old school wrestling trainer like Lou Thesz or Verne Gagne. DDP may actually have given the best performance playing the heel version of his pro wrestling character. It seems like this of version WCW lives in a fairy tale world where they have no worthy competition because no one ever breathes a word of the WWF/E. Another irony is that many of the promotion's biggest stars-Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and star Ric Flair-don't appear in this. Aside from DDP, the only really big WCW stars to appear were Booker T and Sting in throwaway cameos. Maybe one of the strangest things ever done to promote a movie was having one of the stars start participating in wrestling matches. WWF/E had celebrities like Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper making appearances during the old Rock and Wrestling era but neither was actually booked to win a promotion's title belt. WCW booked David Arquette as their champion in an on screen feud, where he was seen aligning himself with DDP and Chris Kanyon against Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff. It got even stranger from there, believe it or not, with Arquette defending the belt and then he turned HEEL on DDP. At the very least, though, Arquette was originally against wrestling in WCW as a promotional stunt and he gave all the money he made doing it to the families of Darren Drozdov and Brian Pillman.

Back in 2000 when I went to Hollywood Video and saw this movie on VHS the cover made me pick it up and read the back of it. Curious about it I rented it.Now you have to be a fan of Wrestling to fully understand it and at the time I found it to be a funny movie and it still is funny to me but looking back had I known the history that I learn many years later I would have felt different but again during the biggest high in Wrestling during the WWF vs WCW days I was for the World Wrestling Federation. This film centers around WCW World Championship Wrestling as two die hard Wrestling fans Gordie played by David Arquette and Sean played by Scott Caan who attend WCW Nitro to watch their hero Jimmy King played by Oliver Platt as he defends the WCW World Championship against Diamond Dallas Page however Titus Sinclair Played by Joe Pantoliano has other plans.After watching their hero being defeated they begin a quest to help Jimmy King regain what he had lost. Along the way Gordie meets Nitro Gril Sasha played by Rose McGowan Story wise it was enough to keep your interest in this comedy. The film also features WCW Wrestlers in cameo and play parts during the film such as Goldberg, Sting, Booker T, Billy Kidman, Curt Hennig, Gorgeous George, Macho Man Randy Savage, Juventud Guerrero, Bam Bam Bigelow, Disco Inferno, Konnan, Sid Vicious. The film also features the Nitro Girls: Chae, Fyre, Spice, Storm, TygressIt just takes a wrestling fan to understand the film. The film does features some funny bits that will make you replay the line again to get another kick out of it.And the in the film's climax the Triple Steel Cage wrestling match is really good and it has you on the edge the whole time like a real wrestling match and very exciting. The music during the match helps tell the story so well done and it is reason enough to watch this movie. Sure it's not a film for everyone but wrestling fans can sit back and enjoy it. It is a funny, entertaining filmI give Ready to Rumble an 8 out of 10

In the late 90's, watching pro-wrestling was so popular, as the sport entertainment was reaching another golden age. This movie made for pro-wrestling fans was pretty mediocre at best. First off, the comedy film directed by Brian Robbins kinda insult wrestling fans by making them the lowest of the low. They act like watching wrestling was the lowest thing ever by having two of the most idiotic protagonists in sewage workers fanboys Gordie Boggs (David Arquette) and Sean Dawkins (Scott Caan) whom trying to recaptured their favorite wrestler's spotlight by having Jimmy King (Oliver Platt) go after the championship belt after he been screw out of the championship by the promoter Titus Sinclair (Joe Pantoliano) and wrestler Diamond Dallas Page (playing himself). Both fan boys come off, as annoying, immature, gross-out man-child. Being call losers from everybody from fast food workers, grocery store clerks, and small time cops for liking wrestling, it felt like the movie is trying to make fun of wrestling fans for liking wrestling. That's isn't how we treat your target audience. Second off, the film has this complete garble between breaking kayfabe and keeping it. Then it shoot in the film to the point that it's doesn't make any sense. A good example of this is the plot. If the promoter because he doesn't want him to wrestle because the King was mistreating people, then there is no way, he would be able to come back. Why would anybody root for this guy, anyways? First off, Jimmy King doesn't even look like a wrestler and he is pretty awful person. If the film took so time, to explain more of Jimmy King's backstory, then it would make more sense if he was an aging ex-wrestler trying to get one last comeback similar to 2008's the Wrestler. Still, there is little charm to the character. It doesn't make sense for the adults to be still marking for this wrestler. How is Jimmy King even popular? He come up heelish, he does an awful rap and based on the movie, barely can wrestle, but he is able to be champion for so long? Also, did Jimmy King not have a contract? Why would you have a world champion without them being under contract? If, Titus Sinclair didn't want him to be in WCW, then why did he set up an expensive marketing PPV about his return to wrestling to challenge Diamond Dallas Page? Wouldn't promoting a real life shoot fight with a person that isn't under contract would land WCW in trouble with the law in real life because of the dangers of the match? It's doesn't make sense. In no way, would he get rehired. In real life, he would have been banned from any WCW events or kick out. Even if King won, Titus still own the company in the film, and could still fire him or strip him of the belt. Written by Steven Brill, the film is bit dated in its material, when the whole plot revolved around the World Championship Wrestling and its cohorts which has been defunct a year after the film's release. A lot of WCW wrestlers make cameos, and it's a great showcase of the talent back then. Still, you can tell the different between the actors and the wrestlers. Not by their acting skills, all the acting in this film was pretty bad. I'm talking about their look. Rose McGowan is supposed to be a Nitro Girl dancer, but in no way, does she even look like she belong there. Most of the other Nitro Girls were fitness models and were a bit meaty. Another sub character was Sal Bandini (Martin Landau). The sub-plot of Jimmy King getting train with Stu Hart like wrestler, Sal Bandini went nowhere as King doesn't use any submission moves in the final match. Most of the training scenes in this movie was very useless as it felt like filling scenes between the challenge and the fight. Even, the sub-plot about Gordie's father not wanting Gordie to become a wrestler seem force as Gordie was able to be a wrestler without little training. The biggest insult of this film was how they promote it. They had David Arquette win the World Championship on television against the wishes of the fans and wrestlers. In many reasons, actions such like these are the reason why a lot of WCW viewers turn off the program and turn to WWE (WWF at the time) for better entertaining values. No wrestling fan doesn't want to see a B-List actor win the title because he didn't earn it. It really did devalue the belt in such high regard. Anyways, the small amount of wrestling matches in the film were surprising good in my opinion. Diamond Dallas Page, Shane Helms and Kanyon did a great job training the actors and being stunt doubles. The humor and the comedy was below funny. It did had it funny moments, but all the groin kicking and toilet humor was pretty dumb. They even rip off jokes from 1995, Mallrats. That movie wasn't even funny, too. The movie draws its title from ring announcer Michael Buffer's catchphrase, "Let's get ready to rumble!" and Buffer sports a cameo in the film. Overall, the film wasn't that good, but it has it cult following due to its ties with wrestling. I'm not embarrassed of somewhat liking the movie a bit, too. Even if it's a bit dumb and predictable. Even if you're not a huge wrestling fan, there is enough 1990's nostalgia that might get you onboard to watching it. If you are a huge wrestling fan, it's a must watch. At less, watch it once.

Ready to Rumble is a breakthrough in dumbass comedys. It's not too bad, but seriously, it was like the last movie David Arquette was ever in that I know of (Eight Legged Freaks doesn't count). The sole person that saved this movie from the $5.99 bin at Wal-Mart was Oliver Platt. It truly shows he can be serious and stupid at the same time. Okay, on to the plot (oh right, there wasn't one). Alright, I like this movie,I own this movie, so I should stop being a jerk. The story is about Jimmy King, a professional wrestler for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) whose loses a match and is fired. This is where Arquette and Scott Cann come in. They're both huge King fans and are ticked off that he got screwed by the president of WCW, Donald St.Claire (Joe Pantoliano). So they find the King, fix him up with some connections, have him train, and win a cage match at a major pay-per-view. Sounds pretty simple, right? Other than some minor story flaws, and an ass shot of Scott Cann half-way through, it was okay. It's a good thing WCW doesn't exist anymore, because more than likely, there would've been a sequel (which is not good at all). Two out of five stars.