Ringmaster (1998)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Load of rubbish!!

hyped garbage

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I kept thinking that this was a movie based on "The Jerry Springer Show". It says that isn't and is simply a fictionalized version of Jerry Springer's show. What's the point in any of that? I myself don't know or really care if Jerry Springer is real or not. I doubt I've had the luxury of watching an entire episode. It's pretty obscure nowadays.So this movie tells the story of a bunch of people and how they wind up on Jerry's show. It's just as dumb (or possibly as smart) as you'd expect. I guess there's a few good moments here and there, but there's just no reason for this dumb movie to exist. It's sad when I say that I can think of many worse films. At least it got the spirit of the show. That's of course not a good thing. *1/2

RINGMASTER is a crude and raunchy fictionalized "behind the scenes" look at the production of an episode of THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW, the daytime talk show that makes stars out of ordinary white bread trailer trash who love to come on the show and air their dirty laundry in front of a national television audience. If you can accept the completely fabricated premise in which this story is presented, you might find some laughs here. This film shamelessly perpetrates the myth that Jerry and his staff recruit the guests for the show and do nothing else. It seems to claim that Jerry and his staff have nothing to do with the outrageous on stage shenanigans and that it is all spontaneous and unplanned, which we know for a fact is not true. If you can accept that the entire premise of this film is based on this huge lie, then it is easy to go along with the story of two separate groups of trailer trash being booked on the show. Jerry plays himself with as much sincerity as the plastic screenplay allows. Emmy winner Jaime Pressley (MY NAME IS EARL)and Wendy Raquel Robinson (THE GAME)offer energetic lead performances as the two protagonists in the separate stories being booked on the show. As stupid as this movie is, I still found myself laughing. There are laughs throughout and I have a feeling this film is going to be added to my "guilty pleasure" list because I found myself laughing despite the fact that I felt like I shouldn't be.

I have seen this movie and I don't understand why everyone spends 3 paragraphs talking about how horrible it is. This movie was clearly never intended to Win best picture- And I am sure the Producers and Directors were aware of that while filming. The intent of the movie is to make fun of people and the way some people live.I actually thought the movie covered every base, everything from the magazines lying around their house, to the food they eat, to hanging out at the laundromat! Obviously nothing you can take too seriously, but I got a kick out of it.6/10

Let me start by saying it's not THAT bad. It's in no way Oscar material of course, but it is not horrible. It's the type of stupid comedy that makes you roll your eyes and laugh at the same time. I'm a huge fan of the "Scary Movie" series, although I and no doubt everyone else who has seen those movies will agree they are inherently stupid. This movie is pretty much the same thing, except based on the "Jerry Springer" show. What separates this movie from the show is the "behind-the-scenes" look at a group of people slated to appear on the show, including white trash duo and mother and daughter Connie (Molly Hagan) and Angel (Jaime Pressly), Detroit "sistas" Starletta (Wendy Robinson), Vonda (Tangie Ambrose) and Leshawnette (Nicki Micheaux) and Startletta's unfaithful boyfriend Demond (Michael Jai White). Several points in the movie make (or attempt to make) you feel pity for these characters, but not in the way it was intended, I don't think. Towards the end of the movie, Jerry has this big long monologue about how people eat up the troubles of celebrities but when it comes to poor people, they can't digest it as well. I was more compelled to feel sorry for these characters for their "great unwashed" status rather than the problems they faced themselves. So, overall, I thought the movie was quite entertaining (although stupid), but fans of the actual show (which I am not) might not find it as satisfying, because the movie contains several moments that are serious and try to teach a deeper lesson that may seem out of place with the usual hijinks.