BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) READY TO RUMBLE
One part David Arquette, one part Oliver Platt, and a whole lot of WCW. That is apparently the recipe for destruction. This movie saw obsessive wrestling fans live their dream of interacting and getting involved with their favorite wrestler. There are tons of WCW people in this movie. It’s a pretty lame movie to be honest, but it’s better than Nacho Libre’.
(THREE) KAYFABE
I saw this indie mockumentary a few years ago and I was taken back by it. Where The Wrestler captures the emotion and the deep stuff, this is a pretty correct look at the cheesiness, self importance, slap stick, frat house, and naivety. It feels like “The Office”, but with wrestling. I love this movie for the fact the makers had the balls to go with it and did it before I could. The only real flaw is that some characters and performances are a little hokey, but then again have you been to a small town wrestling show?
(TWO) NO HOLDS BARRED
Hulk Hogan vs. Zeus! The huge gigantic match that nobody asked for! This was a really cool idea in theory, but the execution was a little off. They had a movie about a shady promoter and then Hogan vs. Zeus at the end. They even had PPV rematch. Of course, Hogan never loses.
(ONE) THE WRESTLER
This movie is so good that it had me convinced for about a year that Mickey Rourke was a great actor. He’s not really though. What I can say is that Darren Aronofsky was a genius for casting the broken down, ego driven, whack job that is Rourke, respectively of course. The movie focuses on a broken down old wrestler who keeps doing it because he has nothing else to do. The portrayal of how a wrestler lives, the backstage stuff, the drugs, the personalities, the cheese, and the lameness is pretty much 100% true. It’s sad that I know of about a dozen independent workers who fit this mold. Still, it captures the emotion and the constant need to thrive that gets everyone involved. When it came out I thought it was one of the best movies ever. It’s not, but it’s still a great movie.
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