Ready to Rumble
Metascore
23 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 26
  3. Negative: 18 out of 26
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  1. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Phoebe Flowers
    38
    Heavy on cheap, dirty humor (Gordie and Sean clean septic tanks for a living, a fact that is milked frequently for laughs), but it's never substantial enough to truly offend or delight.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    33
    It just makes you want to flip on the tube to see the real (fake) thing.
  3. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Steve Simels
    30
    An extremely loud and simpleminded cross between TV's "WWF Smackdown!" and "Dumb and Dumber."
  4. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Allan Johnson
    25
    Will come off as insipid, unfunny and too serious at times for its own good.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    25
    See it only if potty-training is still the most vivid life experience in your book of memories.
  6. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    25
    Numbskull cinema scrapes new depths.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    25
    Here's ringside entertainment for those who think TV wrestling is too intellectual and restrained.
  8. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    25
    The less said the better.
  9. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    25
    Stephen Brill's flat-footed script begins as an idiot comedy with the gross-out gags of a Farrelly brothers film.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Dave Shulman
    20
    Even though Ready To Rumble isn't funny or good in any way, there's plenty of softcore gay porn (wrestling), loud music and women with large breasts.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    20
    Rates a notch below the KISS-centric "Detroit Rock City" and a couple above Jerry Springer's "Ringmaster" -- in other words, closer to stupid-fun than stupid-toxic.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    20
    This gross-out action comedy gets good mileage from its high-energy music and World Championship Wrestling characters, and leads David Arquette and Scott Caan are expertly pathetic.
  13. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    10
    Let's be real clear about this: You've got to be suffering from some major trash-culture brain damage to enjoy a movie like Ready to Rumble.
  14. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Emily Bobrow
    10
    Rumble's aim is low and dirty.
  15. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Tom Keogh
    10
    I would rather have been scraping gum off my shoe than sitting there another minute.
  16. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    10
    A movie made for wrestling fans that makes fun of wrestling fans? That cuts a little too close to the vicarious masochism at the heart of pro wrestling's core constituency. Also, it's not funny.
  17. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A. O. Scott
    10
    Not a satire of the idiocy of professional wrestling, but a long, self-satisfied wallow in it.
  18. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    0
    I just wanted to rail against the casual homophobia, the senseless violence and the sociopathic cruelty that Ready to Rumble treats as good clean fun.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.6 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 19 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 8
  3. Negative: 5 out of 8
  1. RhaineM.
    1
    One of the worst films of recent times Arquette does not entertain. He is almost as bad an actor as Alec "No Talent" Baldwin.
  2. SomeGuy
    0
    Rather than doing a proper satire of wrestling, this film acts like it's real and churns out a lame Rocky knock-off. This film is a disgrace to both professional wrestling and cinema. The ironic thing is that the 'professional' actors, such as David Arquette, are stupendeously out-acted by their wrestling counterparts. Give DDP the Oscar!… Full Review »
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