The Ringer is directed by Barry W. Blaustein and is the story of a man named Stevie who, when his friend Stavvi loses some fingers, is pressured by his gambling uncle to enter the Special Olympics as a mentally slow man in order to earn a lot of money. After wrongly entering the Special Olympics, Stevie poses as a man named Jeffie, and runs across multiple conflicts throughout his time at the event. That's pretty much the entire movie.I was actually expecting a complete pile of trash prior to watching The Ringer, but it wasn't completely awful. It had some good comedy throughout parts, and most of the acting was decent. Although The Ringer had some poor direction and a lazy script, it wasn't fully horrible. It had some good aspects.The best thing for The Ringer was the acting. Johnny Knoxville was pretty good, as both of his characters. He technically was acting as a guy who was acting as another guy, which is somewhat confusing, but he played both Stevie and Jeffie pretty well. Brian Cox, who played Stevie's uncle, was the highlight of this movie for me, due to his good acting. He played a gambling man who was in deep with the wrong people, so he bet on Stevie winning the Special Olympics, and did it well. All of the other acting was fine. Nobody else did great, but there wasn't any bad acting either.Some of the comedy was pulled off decently well. Although the film was making fun of mentally challenged people, it was supported by the actual Special Olympics, so I guess nobody can really defend them. A few lines that were written for laughs didn't receive any, and some of the jokes were pretty stale. However, a few lines did have me laughing, and laughing hard. Not all of the comedy is bad, just some of it.The worst thing I found in The Ringer was the direction. It wasn't completely awful, but it was horribly bland and boring. Most of the time, I felt as if I were watching a cheap Lifetime movie, and I shouldn't have felt that way. Most of the shots were very boring, and the direction didn't do anything good for the film at all.The script was also quite lazy. For example, a specific person's opinion on a subject will change from scene to scene, even though the subject may be a bit touchy. The script quickly brushed over these types of scenarios, and it felt very lazy and rushed. Most of the dialogue was somewhat cliché, and a lot of it was surprisingly flat. Not many lines had me asking questions, or even wanting to see more of the film. That's not a good thing.Overall, The Ringer wasn't awful, but it most definitely wasn't good. Although it did contain some good acting and some funny comedy, those couldn't save The Ringer from a bad script and poor direction.

Brian Cox as the unrepentant gambling uncle almost steals the show in THE RINGER, but Johnny Knoxville hops aboard the short bus to success when he agrees to fix the Special Olympics. THE RINGER is often laugh-out-loud hilarious (as when Knoxville discovers that his undercover name will henceforth be "Jeffy Dahmer"), but it's also a nice little love story and- most important of all- a reaffirmation of the Human Spirit. I LOVE the fact that the guys with whom "Jeffy" is rooming not only find him out (when he lets his guard down and "acts different"), but also agree to help him perpetrate his fraud because they can't stand the star of the Special Olympics, Jimmy (who arrives in a limo with a gaggle of publicity people), who is favored to win again this year. On a personal note, I can sympathize with people who might be offended by some of the humor in THE RINGER, but it's actually relatively mild when compared to the kind of hurtful, humiliating humor that one encounters out in The Real World. (With LOVE, this one's for Sissy.)

I reluctantly started watching this on TV, assuming it was going to be a really stupid, low-brow, exploitive and unfunny movie. The first part of the movie does nothing to change that impression. But as it evolves into the Special Olympics, it becomes apparent that some of the actors have Down's syndrome. It also appears that some of the others may also be "Special." The movie takes a turn from the silly and stupid, to being a humorous but respectful treatment of the participants in the Special Olympics. The humor is not particularly heavy-handed, even if it isn't particularly intellectual, but the subject matter is very well handled, and the movie is uplifting, if a little predictable and maudlin. I'd still recommend it, if only for the joy of seeing the actors succeed in creating a movie that must have made participating in the Special Olympics seem a walk in the park. Congratulations to everyone who had anything to do with producing or acting in this. I only regret that I didn't see this in the theater, so that I could support those that created it.

I found Johnny Knoxville to be cool, but not that funny. And was hoping for some good laugh, but that is not what I got out of it. Everything about this so called comedy wasn't funny and was just predictable. All the funny parts are in the trailer and the trailer wasn't even funny. This film had some good idea, but it turned into more of a romance movie than a crude outrageous humor movie that I was expecting it to be. It also follows the cliché of the protagonist going with the flow and realize he made a mistake and tries to correct that mistake and show some morals near the end. And despite Johnny Knoxville being pretty good at acting retarded, this film had hardly to do with the special Olympic. The romance in it isn't even good and is a pretty bad date movie as well. So not a good comedy or a date movie, so just pass on this one. There is just way better comedies out there.3.8/10