There are no apparent rules of conduct in pro wrestling.
A grappler can throw his opponent out of the ring, hit him over the head with a metal chair, put an appendage through a meat grinder. It's almost quaint how the referee will not count the bleeding carcass out unless he is properly pinned down.
Similarly, there are no aesthetic guidelines in the rasslin' pic Ready to Rumble -- save one. The makers of this comedy think the funniest thing in the world is when a guy gets kicked real hard between the legs. Thus, this movie has more high kicks than a can can, and virtually all the flying feet end up planted in somebody's reproductive organs. The result is not so much a gutbuster as it is a nutbuster.
But even given its crude humour, Ready to Rumble has its moments.
It's about a pair of backwoods losers who believe that wrestling is "the sport of kings." Gordie (David Arquette) actually wants to be a wrestler, but he's prohibited to follow his dream by his highway patrolman dad, who is eager to keep his son in the family business. (Dad is given to saying things like "Your sister shot her first perp today.")
His friend Sean (Scott Caan) is ... ah ... entrenched in the business of cleaning septic tanks for a living. It's a dismal existence until the buddies take a road trip to see their hero, champion wrestler Jimmy King (Oliver Platt) take on Diamond Dallas Page at a WCW event.
But horrors, something goes terribly wrong when King's manager (Joe Pantoliano) betrays his client, and orders Page and about 100 goons to attack King, leaving Page with the championship belt. Jimmy promptly disappears into trailer-park obscurity, until our two heroes resolve to bring the beer-bellied redneck back to champion status by any means necessary.
For fans, the movie is certainly no less credible than any of those weird, violent soap operas they'll see on WCW Monday Nitro. And the film enjoys the benefit of a good comic actor in Arquette, a guy whose innate manic glee is usually pretty funny to watch. The portly Platt also gives the film more subtlety than is necessary. Sure, at first glance, Platt doesn't look remotely muscular enough to pass as a pro wrestler ... but then, neither does Mankind.
Anyway, it's ill-advised to take this particular movie at all seriously. When pro wrestling meets Dumb and Dumber, just be content that it's a marriage made in redneck heaven.
(This film is rated PG-13)
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