Ready to Rumble (2000) stars David Arquette and Scott Caan as two wrestling fans who idolize the World Championship Wrestler Champion "Jimmy King" (played by the always wonderful Oliver Platt). When their hero loses the belt and disappears, the guys set out on a journey to find him and help him win the title again. This comedy has some very funny moments. Watch for cameos of some famous wrestlers.
I have been a professional wrestling fan for 24 years, have been to numerous shows (mostly WWF/WWE), met many top stars of the business and was the Grand Prize winner of a WWE SummerSlam sweepstakes back in 2006. I have seen a lot of shows and movies which are based in the world of professional wrestling where wrestling is treated as a legitimate (when those in the business were publicly saying that professional wrestling is real, not fake). This movie tries, and fails, to mix that with the true reality of the business.
"Gordie Boggs" (David Arquette, who was given the WCW World Heavyweight Championship during this movie's promotion when it hit theaters) and "Sean Dawkins" (Scott Caan) are professional wrestling fanatics who deal with people that tease them about their favorite form of entertainment. They even have to deal with the ones who bring up the one word that fans and those in professional wrestling have been trying to erase when talking about professional wrestling -- fake (staged is a more accurate term for what you see in the ring. There are just too many injuries that wrestlers have to deal with on a daily basis for it to be fake).
The two idolize the World Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion "Jimmy King" (Oliver Platt) and know everything about the man. And the two can't stop talking about getting to see their hero in person when the two attend a live televised event featuring "King" defending the championship against top contender "DDP" Diamond Dallas Page (the real-life WCW World Heavyweight Champion at the time).
When King loses the title to and banned for life from the company by head WCW promoter "Titus Sinclair" (Joe Pantoliano wearing an obvious bad, long-haired wig), who orchestrated the screw-job against the man he discovered about 14 years ago, the two friends go on a search to find their idol, and quickly find out that what they believe to be the truth about him is far from it. However, they still help him get back up on his feet and prepare to regain the title he lost.
I have to say that, even though I am in the target audience of this film, I am highly disappointed in it.
The first problem, which is evident within the first 45 seconds of the movie, is the writing. The dialogue is pretty horrible. The performances aren't that great either.
Another major problem with this movie is that the character development is horrible. We have a total of six fictional characters in the cast, with a good chunk of the WCW roster rounding out the cast. The fictional characters are barely to somewhat developed and are poorly written.
You also get one of the worst acted movies I've ever seen. The wrestlers are given little to no dialogue for the most part, and are just there. The scenes where wrestlers are given lines are extremely brief, and their lines are even briefer. If you ask me, the people behind the movie insulted the wrestlers with the way they were written into the movie.
I felt that there was no chemistry between "Sasha", a WCW Nitro Girl, and "Boggs". Their relationship was forced, and poorly expanded.
Platt was a joke as a professional wrestler in my opinion. If you ask me, if "King" were a real wrestler, he would never make it past mid-card status. And if he was given a title in reality, it would be a lower title like the United States Heavyweight Championship or a short reign with the World Tag Team Championship. Even his in-ring gear was pathetic looking. "Sinclair" was only slightly better, but, as a wrestling character, would have fit better in the wrestling minor leagues called independents, which perform only around whatever city or town they are based out of and are a lot more lower in budget than WCW was.
To give the movie some authenticity, we get to see some matches that are supposedly taking place on basic cable and Pay-Per-View television. For some reason, it appeared that the "TV shows" were taking place in smaller venues than we are lead to believe. The arena crowd didn't have a realistic feel, and felt like they were just following directions. The matches shown were chopped up and edited together horribly if you ask me. In fact, the entire movie wasn't edited together nicely. Another problem, to add to the authenticity of the TV shows, real-life WCW commentators Tony Schiavone and "The Professor" "Iron" Mike Tenay were shown calling the action like they did in WCW (Schiavone has gone back to sports radio since WCW was purchased and eventually shut down by World Wrestling Entertainment, and Tenay now works for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling). Schiavone and Tenay appeared very stiff during their brief moments on screen, and their words appeared to be more scripted than they would on a real broadcast.
When it comes to special effects, this movie was very average. The sounds of bodies slamming on the ring mat and punches and slaps hitting their targets didn't sound anything like what they actually do. I specifically remember during one match, one of the wrestlers is sent hard to the mat, and it was more than obvious that the sound of his body landing was edited in.
One thing that worked was the soundtrack. All the songs were big hits by big stars in the music world in 2000. One song, which was used as Arquette's theme music when he promoted the movie during WCW telecasts, was a remake of a classic Twisted Sister song from the late 1980's that was only heard during the closing credits.
To my fellow wrestling fans, I would say, if you come across it on the HBO channels, check out "Bodyslam" if you want a good wrestling movie. This one is passable.
Being a wrestling fan it's hard not to like this movie. It has some of the dumbest dialogue that I have ever heard or seen in a movie - yet it's funny and fun to watch.
I would tell any wrestling fan to watch this movie. If your not a wrestling fan - you may find it pointless, but for me, it was golden.
was pretty good the jokes were a little lame but the wrestling makes up for it. The 3 caged cage match at the end was great. Plus awesome seeing Rose Mcgowan as a Nitro girl.
I didn't think it was too bad. I mean the attempted comedy lines were shocking, but as a wrestling fan I enjoyed it. Rose McGowan gets hotter everytime u see her.
That movie simply rocked.David Arquette and Scott Caan rocked.So did Oliver Plat.Great performance by Diamond Dallas Page and Goldberg.U gotta love good ole WCW.Hope they make another movie like that.Just dont use John Cena.
I liked it just because it reminded me of what i would do for Hulk Hogan but if your not a wrestling fan then you may want to look elsewere for entertainment
Sal Bandini! Wanna wrestle? "You gonna be a wrestler? You got trouble wrestlin' your wee-wee out of your trousers to take a leak!" -"It's not that I have trouble... just sometimes I don't see the point."
This is an insult to wrestling fans. I am a die heart, but even i would not do the crap these idiots do. This also lead to the biggest insult to a wrestler fan, WCW, WWF, ECW, ROH, it doesn't matter what promotion you like, David Arquette as World Champ
This is a reflection of a certain point in time in the wrestling business, and how much in the past WCW lived in mentally. Decently stupid funny comedy.
Pretty stupid comedy about two wrestling dorks (David Arquette & Scott Caan) who wants to help a fallen wrestler named Jimmy King (Oliver Platt) to get back at Dallas Page for stealing the championship title. If you don't know shit about WCW or wrestling you won't get it at all, but still if you do, it's never really funny. You are better of watching some old WCW matches.
underrated but nonetheless insulting WCW financed movie, portrays its target audience (wrestling fans) as out of touch dorks...Non-wrestler and all round abysmal actor David Arquette was actually made WCW world champion in order to promote Ready to Rumble.
if your a wrestling fan you got to see this. David Arquette and Scott Caan play 2 wrestling fans and there big fans of Jimmy King (Oliver Platt). Jimmy gets screwed out of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship by DDP and Joe Pantoliano who plays the owner of WCW. The movie features all WCW big stars such as Booker T, Rey Mysterio (without the mask) Billy Kidman, Sting, Goldberg, Sharmell, Perry Saturn, Randy Savage, Sid, Bam Bam, Juventud Guerrera and more. I was more of a WCW fan during that time then WWE. I just wish WCW was still here cause it would of kicked WWE ass if it wasnt for Vince Russo. Eric Bischoff the best Runner of WCW and should of started in this movie.
got this one and so bloodly helious. and did you know that David has a brother called Alexis, and Scott is the son of the great James of the tv show las vagus
I thought this was a funny movie taken from wrestling and showing how ridicoulus it can be. I love this movie I love the characters and it was a great way to promote WCW before it went out.
Only for wrestling fans. I enjoyed this film back when I was into wrestling. I like the music, and the wrestling matches are OK (they really could have done better) but the story was horrible.
MCT:October 5, 2008
MCT:August 14, 2008
MCT:August 3, 2008
MCT:March 29, 2008
MCT:March 25, 2008
MCT:January 8, 2008
MCT:December 7, 2007
MCT:November 13, 2007
