'The Ringer' has some genuinely funny laugh out loud moments; the trouble is there's too few of them and between the occasional laughs is a predictable story which after watching the first 15 minutes you'll kinda know how it's going to end. Johnny Knoxville does a fairly good job overall, but apart from a couple of slapstick moments and due to the lacklustre scrip he's never really that funny. What saved the film for me were the great performances from 'Edward Barbanell' and 'Brian Cox'. Cox, despite a slightly dodgy American accent, was very funny as the unscrupulous gambling addicted 'Uncle Gary' and Edward Barbanell as 'Billy' had some of the films best lines and pretty much stole every scene he was in. Overall, 'The Ringer' is a film which, despite its subject matter, lets itself down due to a weak script which plays it way to safe and ends up warm, fuzzy and clichéd. If it had been Adam Sandler in the lead role it could have got away it, Knoxville however would have been better served with a less sentimental, much edgier and funnier script. If you're a fan of Adam Sandler films like 'Happy Gilmore', 'Mr Deeds' and 'The Waterboy' then you'll probably like 'The Ringer'. If you're expecting a Farrelly Brothers style comedy along the lines of 'Dumb & Dumber', 'Kingpin' or 'Me, Myself & Irene' then chances are you'll be disappointed.
i found this movie very funny, but i must admit half way through the movie i had to pause it and ask "was it okay to laugh at this movie" ?.
johnny knoxville is great in my book and to see the delightful Katherine Heigl, (and why she is not mentioned above i will never know), she is worth watching she can be seen in roswell series 1 - 3 and grey's anatomy series 1 & 2.....do more Katherine, right back to the movie i give this a sk 5 out of 5.