Ready to Rumble

Heaven knows when wrestling became cinema's sport du mode, but this cheerily corpulent comedy follows close on the heavy heels of Barry Blaustein's documentary Beyond the Mat, and toes much the same philosophical line. These glitzy grunt 'n' groan shows may be entertainment by fuck-ups for fuck-ups, it concedes - but hell, we do love 'em. You may beg to differ. The film profiles two cretinous, reality-challenged late adolescents, Gordie (Arquette) and Sean (Caan), who haul sewage and obsess about wrestling. Their idol and guiding light is unvanquished WCW champ Jimmy King (Platt) - but it turns out Jimmy's more of a WCW chimp, and it's on the very 'Monday Nitro Night' the duo choose to make their pilgrimage that tassled tournament supremo Titus Sinclair (Pantoliano) ordains that his other fighters put their boots in. All this is intellectually unacceptable to the boys, however, so they drag the King out of hiding - and women's clothing - and kickstart a grudge rematch with an enthusiasm he can't quite share.