Who is handicapped in the ringer

However the reason you should not spend time watching this is because it is never really funny and devoid of big laughs. Sandcooler 20 March It may just be me, but hasn't this movie been made a hundred times already?

A guy finds himself somewhere he really doesn't want to be, surrounded by people he doesn't like, but in the end he pulls through and learns to love his new surroundings. Eventually he understands that you shouldn't judge people by yadda yadda yadda, now let's beat some kind of villain.

Oh, and there you have the love interest with the asshole boyfriend, right on cue. Perhaps our hero should catch him cheat on her. What do you know, he does. This movie is almost shockingly formulaic, and virtually no effort is made to bring in anything creative. Some people find this movie offensive, but this movie is just way too lame for someone to be offended by.

Besides, it's not like the mentally handicapped are actually mocked, at least not enough for one to care. I liked Johnny Knoxville in this movie, but he can't save the bad screenplay like he could in say, "Walking Tall".

He's still pretty good, but his comedy talent is wasted here. BrandtSponseller 13 July The most important thing to remember about The Ringer is that it's a Farrelly Brothers production, after they've done films like Stuck on You and Fever Pitch Because of that, some people have been disappointed with their more recent films, which are just as concerned with being sweet and romantic as they are with being funny.

But the truth is that their films have always been sweet, romantic comedies. They've just mellowed a bit over the years. They're not quite as frantic as they used to be, the jokes are not non-stop or meant to be , we've gotten more used to their sensibility, and others have focused on making comedies even more outrageous.

Even thought the Farrelly Brothers didn't write or direct The Ringer, their stamp is all over the film, and it should be thought of as much or more as a Farrelly Brothers film than a Johnny Knoxville vehicle, and certainly it seems more like a Farrelly Brothers film than a Barry W. Blaustein film. This is only Blaustein's second turn in the director's chair, and with his first film a wrestling documentary from , Blaustein is more well known at this point as a writer of several Eddie Murphy films.

Like most of the Farrelly Brothers' films, The Ringer focuses on people who are outcasts for some reason--people who don't fit into social norms.

But despite misconceptions to the contrary and other filmmakers actually doing this , the Farrelly Brothers have never really ridiculed those people. Their concern is instead to show how people and things that are different are valuable in ways that mainstream society might not expect; to show how people who are different have universal human characteristics, but at the same time, not to underplay their differences.

They sincerely love their characters. So expecting The Ringer to approach its subject matter in a way that would make fun of it or ridicule it would be off-base--not because they're being politically correct, but because it's not consistent with the Farrelly Brothers' world-view and thus to take The Ringer as offensive is particularly bizarre. Maybe that's why, over the years, they've shifted slightly away from outrageous comedy as a focus--they may have felt that that genre contributed to audiences misreading them.

So you shouldn't expect The Ringer to be primarily concerned with getting big laughs, either. It's more just quirky. Of course Knoxville gets to do some of the physical stunts that made him famous, and The Ringer is funny at times, but the humor arrives more strongly in the second half, and rather than laughing at the Special Olympics, with the audience members belonging to the mainstream, the humor here obtains by inducting you just like Knoxville into the Special Olympics fold so that you can laugh at the mainstream and maybe that's more what people are finding offensive--not everyone embraces the different like the Farrelly Brothers do.

At the same time, The Ringer develops a romance subplot that shouldn't be unexpected. However, that Knoxville does a bit of his usual shtick may be one of the small flaws here. More than likely he took this role in an attempt to stretch his range a bit, which he does well, but the Jackass-styled stunts, as entertaining and funny as they are at times, probably contribute to some viewers misreading the film and taking it for a failure because it's not making them laugh enough, or it isn't outrageous enough.

Another slight flaw might be that the first half lingers a bit too long--The Ringer comes to a boil very slowly, but it's an enjoyable film if you take it for what it is rather than trying to force it into a narrow genre compartment.

The Ringer is a film that tries to be silly and sentimental at the same time and because its going one way then the other, it's not at all completely satisfying.

This film has moments - moments of major stupidity, very light humor, very light heart. But it's all over the place. Up and down. Not quite uneven, but not quite con-jointed either. I'm not going over the story again, many others have already done that, but the gist of it is that an office worker gets talked into entering the special Olympics to pay off debts associated with him, and one incurred by a gambling family member.

I guess if you're going to do a film with a theme of a healthy person trying to win a Special Olympics you only have two choices: raunchy, side splitting comedy or all heart. The middle ground loses something. At points you feel the film wants to "go there" but then pulls back so that it doesn't "offend". I say, "offend" or This film suffers from "political correctness" because honestly, who WOULD want to pay to see a completely healthy person fix a Special Olympics. This film is lacking what those films had.

Try again. As a comedy movie, 'The Ringer' is fairly average. It has a few good laughs, some funny characters and an entertaining plot, but nothing that hasn't already been done before. It's the sort of film you stick on when you need to pass a couple of hours, a film that you can follow without paying any real attention. Overall, this is a decent comedy with some likable characters. An easy-to-follow, entertaining story with a few decent laughs.

IonicBreezeMachine 25 April Steve Barker Johnny Knoxville hates his job but after over two years of working, receives a promotion. Steve reluctantly does so, but hires him to work around his apartment. Stavi gets three fingers cut off in a lawn-mower accident, and reveals that he does not have health insurance. Steve, who competed in track and field in high school as well as having acted in the drama club, reluctantly enters the Special Olympics in the guise of a high functioning young man with a developmental disability named Jeffy.

The Ringer took 7 years to get made due to studios being put off by its premise. The script gained more traction once it got the endorsement of the Special Olympics and executive producer Peter Farrelly is himself a volunteer with Best Buddies, an organization that provides mentorships to special needs persons, and has routinely included characters in his films such as There's Something About Mary and Stuck on You.

The movie also serves a test vehicle for Johnny Knoxville's ability to carry a comedy outside of his Jackass wheelhouse Dukes of Hazzard reboot aside and the movie is actually a very funny and surprisingly sweet film that shows just how good a leading man Knoxville can be.

Despite a premise that could easily be turned towards the lowest common denominator, the movie does a good job of deriving humor from its premise without making itself a one joke affair. The Special Athletes who make up the supporting cast aren't defined solely by their disability and take a lot of pride and dignity in their training and goals. When the special athletes find out about Steve and Gary's scam they're understandably angered by it but when they find out why he did it they actually work with him to help while also playing to their own desires to take the arrogant champion, Jimmy Washington, down a peg by breaking his multi year streak.

There's a lot of humanity on display in this movie that makes these characters three dimensional but still allows them to be both fun and funny. Johnny Knoxville is very good playing Steve Barker who's a likable good natured slob who just wants to do right by his friend, and he showcases some really good comic energy and timing as he switches between himself and the persona he's created with Jeffy. Katherine Heigl plays Lynn, a volunteer with the Special Olympics who is also a love interest for Knoxville's character and she plays the character with sweetness and sincerity and has genuinely desire to help and foster persons with special needs due to her own experience with her brother.

Brian Cox is despicably good as Steve's sleazy, lecherous, gambling uncle Gary, and the exchanges between Cox and Knoxville are incredibly well done with Knoxville reacting just perfectly to Gary's casual ableism.

The Ringer takes a subject that could've easily been played too safe or too lowbrow and finds the perfect balance for it. While not every joke lands, the ratio is more hits than misses and an assortment of likable characters who feel fully formed and not just punchline machines give the movie a level of sweetness and sincerity that's uncommon in this type of movie.

An error has occured. Please try again. Create a list ». Throughout the film the main volunteers for the event are overly condescending to the athletes and the athletes take advantage of it. When Knoxville talks to them, he just talks normally and because of that him and the athletes become better friends.

I can relate to that as I am a volunteer for my local chapter of special Olympics and my sister has autism. Throughout all her life I have seen people treat her like a child just because she has autism. But as her brother I know she is smarter than that and I can talk to her normally I just may have to explain a couple of things or word them differently. The same can be said about other special needs kids. With comedy nothing is off limits, success in that field depends on how you spin it.

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In short, the film ultimately passes up several opportunities to tickle ableist funny bones, preferring instead to prod ableist assumptions. There are many reasons to set aside The Ringer , but that it does not lower itself to pandering to ableist expectations should not be one of them.

Murderball it is not, but The Ringer —like Stuck on You , the Farrelly brothers' comedy about the life of a pair of conjoined twins—does question ableist thinking in its own way.

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