Rating of
1/4
More like Ready to Crumble
The M.O.W. - wrote on 08/03/08
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 "Body Slam" if you want a good wrestling movie. This one is passable.
