Clevercell Very disappointing...

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

HawkHerald To understand how this movie's run synergized with the ultimate demise of WCW you have to understand some things about WCW. WCW was the no. 2 wrestling company for years, until they signed Hulk Hogan and booked him as a heel and leader of the NWO (New World Order). This angle went on for more than two years and allowed WCW to overtake the WWE as the no. 1 company and their Monday night wrestling program, Nitro, consistently beat WWE Raw in the ratings. By 1999, things had changed with the emergence of Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley and Triple H becoming WWE's biggest stars. During the Attitude Era, Steve Austin's feud with Vince McMahon carried the WWE back to the top brand and winning the weekly battle for Monday ratings. In 1999, pro wrestling had also enjoyed a mainstream popularity that it hadn't seen since the original Hulkamania and Rock and Wrestling days of the mid 1980's. WCW was trying to strike while the iron was hot and decided to make a film. While you can make a good story with a pro wrestling story, namely Mickey Rourke's 2006 comeback film The Wrestler, this movie was like a typical late 1990's teen road trip comedy. Two fans living in Wyoming, Gordie (Scream's David Arquette) and Sean (Entourage and Hawaii Five-O's Scott Caan) are the two biggest fans of WCW World Champion Jimmy King (Oliver Platt, who looked nothing like a pro wrestler even though he could pull off a couple spots). The night Gordie and Sean attend a live WCW Nitro in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on screen WCW President Titus Sincalir (Bad Boys and The Matrix's Joe Pantolaino in weird cowboy garb with a wig that featured pig tail braids and a Stetson) has a backstage falling out with King and plots with Diamond Dallas Paige (as himself) to create a swerve so DDP can become champ. During the match, a Sinclair gives DDP the nod and King loses the belt to Paige. As a secondary result, Sinclair forces him out of WCW. Gordie and Sean are devastated and take it upon themselves to find their hero and help become the champ again. After an extended road trip, where along they find out their hero is a broke, selfish and non-child supporting paying loser, they eventually locate King and convince to try and make a comeback. They sneak onto a Nitro broadcast, where King ambushes Paige but Sinclair interferes and books a rematch for PPV. Cue another montage of training along with Gordie and Sean helping to audition small town weirdos to help Jimmy King a form wrestling "posse" to watch his back leading to the rematch. The movie, while childishly stupid in its humor attempts and an overall inferior product, also takes a very dim view of pro wrestling fans in general, portraying Gordie and Sean as two idiots who were generally unaware of wrestling's scripted match finishes and kayfabe, basically wrestling fiction. This is besides the fact that WCW actually had David Arquette starting to participate in wrestling matches with DDP and Kris Kanyon as his partners. He even defended the title against UFC veteran David "Tank" Abbott. They used the WCW World Title as a promotional tool, having Arquette in a bizarre tag match where he pinned WCW President Eric Bischoff. In one of the worst heel turns and promos of all time, he reveals he was actually part of Hulk Hogan's group the whole time after helping Hogan win the title back. Needless to say, the movie flopped and WCW lost $62 million in 1999. Vince McMahon bought the company for song in early 2001 and the Monday Night Wars ended with a whimper.

Alex Eldridge This movie was actually pretty funny I loved how it was all set around the wrestling business which was at its highest around the time this movie came out I love the scenes with David Arquette and the guy at the shop when it turns into a full out tag team match the movie all around had its best moments and not so good moments like the drive thru scene with Arquette messing with the girl Shawn likes it was a good scene but it didn't really go with the story and one scene that was just terrible and made you go WTF was when Ellen Albertini Dow was in a tight leather suit need I remind you she was 81 so that kind of made me go WTF but I as a wrestling fan I love the film and it also has received a cult following since it came out so if you have not seen it yet and you are a wrestling fan I suggest you see it but if your not a wrestling fan and think wrestling is stupid then I don't suggest it.

tiedyed57 Ready to Rumble is one muddled, ridiculous, and insanely casted wrasslin' comedy. The humor is dismally formulaic and stupid yet somehow manages to induce the occasional chuckle. Most of it, however, is uninteresting mischief, especially the scenes with Arquette and McGowan, which are thankfully few. The bizarre miscasting of this film (Oliver Platt, Joe Pantoliano, and Caroline Rhea???), combined with the WCW wrestlers, sadly turns the film into an exploitive freak show instead of the proper salute to sports entertainment that it should have been. The implementation of the wrestlers and personalities is poorly conceived and gratuitous. The wrestlers are mere muscled garnishes who mostly have no lines and no emotional involvement with the plot. They are either set pieces or extensions of the film's villain, Titus.The major problem with Ready to Rumble is its confusion with the gangster genre. Instead of portraying Titus (Pantoliano) as an oppressive promoter, the uninspired writers imitated the character model of the gangster kingpin only they avoided multiple dimensions or any semblance of interesting character. Titus' brutal tactics do not congeal with the film's tone, which is light-hearted slapstick. Admittedly, gripes of this sort are, in fact, inappropriate since Ready to Rumble is not a character piece. However, the reliance on the gangster genre reveals the distinct lack of a defined wrasslin' genre, which, I think, deserves definition.Excluding documentaries, I haven't seen good professional wrestling cinema to date, but, any film that has Martin Landau in a hot tub with girls is worth at least one look. :)5/10

Adam (VonCouch) I usually don't comment on a movie if it has a bunch of comments already. I figure, what's the point? I'd rather comment on a movie that only has 3 or 4 reviews so people can get a fresh perspective. But screw it. I hold this movie as something that should not only be seen as a bad film, but something that should never be viewed by anyone. If we ever start burning media for censorship reasons (with Bush holding the reigns that should be sometime next month), I'm gonna throw the original prints of this piece of crap on there first. Then I'll boycott the burning.I really don't know who likes a movie like this. The film itself is too stupid and insulting for real wrestling fans to like. And it has too many esoteric jokes and situations in it to hold a non fan's interest. So I guess it's someone who really liked Russo's booking around this time came out. Anyone who turned into WCW with excitement for the next PPV around this time. In other words, anyone with a lukewarm IQ.I've been a fan of wrestling for nearly all my life. It was because of wrestling I got interested in acting, which is what I'm doing to this day. It was because of heels like The Million Dollar Man and Shawn Michaels that I love a great villain (Castor Troy, Tyler Durden, Frank in Once Upon A Time In The West). I hold a great respect for the business and I see it as not only a form of theater, but an art form in and of itself. To watch two wrestlers who really know what they're doing in the ring put a match together is a thing of beauty. People in the past like Ric Flair & Ricky Steamboat. People now like Chris Benoit, Eddie Guererro & Kurt Angle. Professional Wrestling is the most underrated art form in the world, especially in the USA. At least it's somewhat seen higher than a sweaty circus in Mexico and Japan.Part of the reason is the poor image. Wrestlers are seen as bad actors who pretend to fight and hit each other with folding chairs. In turn, anyone who's a fan is just an idiot yokel who got the night off of working the Dairy Queen to come see the rasslin men fight real durn good. And it doesn't help that we got movies like "No Holds Barred" and "Bodyslam" that just perpetuate that image back in the 80's and back in the days of Kayfabe. But now that we've accepted the notion of "sports entertainment", we've moved on. We've accepted that it's a form of theater and it's all for our entertainment. It's not real. We get that. And that's the fun of it.That's why this film is a slap in the face. Not just the crappy acting and even crappier story. But the fact that this movie says not only do wrestling fans all believe that what happens in the ring is real, but that the movie actually SAYS that it's all real! It's like the writers, producers, and directors all got together, flew to your house, crapped in your mouth, then went to the next name on their list.OK, I've gotten this off my chest. But I'll be angry at this film forever more until someone puts out a wrestling movie that doesn't just exist to get a cheap buck of the fans. If you want something close to that, try "Beyond the Mat" or "Wrestling With Shadows". They're documentaries, yes. But they show a glimmer of truth to the business that nothing else has yet to do.