Ready to Rumble

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: April 7, 2000

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

23	METASCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 26 Critics

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

San Francisco ExaminerEdvins Beitks

It's a truly strange coupling of mooning romanticism and rank stupidity that fairly screams, "Teenage America, we love your money!" Read full review

Boston GlobeLoren King

Likable performances from its young cast and a better-than-average script add spark to this formulaic fairy tale and make the wrestling mania watchable. Read full review

TNT RoughCutChad Damiani

The B-movie is back, folks, but who knows how long the fun will last.

Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson

If you're expecting an experience approximately as dumb, badly acted, and childish as a pro wrestling match, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Read full review

Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan

Bizarre yet popular. Read full review

Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert

The plot is easily summarized: "Dumb and Dumber Meet Dumbbell." Read full review

New York PostLou Lumenick

Has its moments of interest, including two excruciating vocals by Arquette and Caan -- and a George Clinton score that contains a theme eerily similar to that of "American Beauty." Read full review

Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten

I'm sorry. I laughed...There's something pleasurable about a comedy that has no pretensions about where it's coming from. Read full review

Charlotte ObserverPhoebe Flowers

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. Read full review

Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman

It just makes you want to flip on the tube to see the real (fake) thing. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineSteve Simels

An extremely loud and simpleminded cross between TV's "WWF Smackdown!" and "Dumb and Dumber." Read full review

San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann

Numbskull cinema scrapes new depths. Read full review

Chicago TribuneAllan Johnson

Will come off as insipid, unfunny and too serious at times for its own good. Read full review

Baltimore SunAnn Hornaday

The less said the better. Read full review

Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker

Stephen Brill's flat-footed script begins as an idiot comedy with the gross-out gags of a Farrelly brothers film. Read full review

USA TodaySusan Wloszczyna

Here's ringside entertainment for those who think TV wrestling is too intellectual and restrained. Read full review

New York Daily NewsJami Bernard

See it only if potty-training is still the most vivid life experience in your book of memories. Read full review

Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector

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. Read full review

VarietyDennis Harvey

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. Read full review

L.A. WeeklyDave Shulman

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. Read full review

SalonAndrew O'Hehir

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. Read full review

Film.comTom Keogh

I would rather have been scraping gum off my shoe than sitting there another minute. Read full review

Village VoiceEmily Bobrow

Rumble's aim is low and dirty. Read full review

The New York TimesA. O. Scott

Not a satire of the idiocy of professional wrestling, but a long, self-satisfied wallow in it. Read full review

Los Angeles TimesJohn Anderson

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. Read full review

Film.comSean Means

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. Read full review