Peter and Bobby Farrelly have always expressed an especially warm but unsentimental attitude in their films toward those with disabilities most notably in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and SHALLOW H...
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Peter and Bobby Farrelly have always expressed an especially warm but unsentimental attitude in their films toward those with disabilities most notably in THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and SHALLOW HAL. THE RINGER which they produced but neither wrote nor directed takes this trait to feverish new heights. JACKASS-cum-leading man stars Johnny Knoxville as office schmo Steve Barker whose request for more responsibility at his job indirectly results in the severing of four fingers from the hand of Stavi the mild-mannered office janitor. When Steve requests financial help from his morally-questionable gambling addict Uncle Gary Brian Cox Stevie finds himself posing as "Jeffy" an athlete in the Special Olympics whose victory against track champion Jimmy Leonard Flowers could spell an end to Uncle Gary's debts and the reattaching of Stavi's fingers. Though a basic description of its premise would make most viewers cry foul THE RINGER skirts the obvious charge of exploitation by making the mentally challenged characte
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(01/13/2006, p.56, Owen Gleiberman): "[A] film that does for the mentally challenged what REVENGE OF THE NERDS did for the pocket-protector set, finding a hidden coolness in their ability to be themselves." -- Grade: B