Lord, Have Mercy.

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2006)

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...be completely heartwarming. This film suffers from "political correctness" because honestly, who WOULD want to pay to see a completely healthy person fix a Special Olympics.
As I watch films like "Animal House", "American Pie", "There's Something About Mary", etc., those films had that "edge" - slob/raunchiness that just made you fall in love with them and you are able to watch over and over and laugh at things you know you're snot supposed to laugh at. This film is lacking what those films had. Try again.