Upon first hearing about this film and then later seeing its trailer, the only thing that raced through my mind were the repeated lyrics in an energetically peppy song performed by the rock group R.E.M. where lead vocalist Michael Stipe continually states, "It's the end of the world as we know it." While he concludes such repetition in that song by singing, "And I feel fine," I couldn't be any further from feeling the complete, polar opposite of that.
Having dragged TV to the bottom of the barrel with his idiotic, absolute lowest common denominator TV show, talk show host Jerry Springer now plans to do the same to motion pictures with this awful release. To state that it should have gone straight-to-video (or perhaps in the trash can) is a "no-brainer," and if not for the quirky and sad, but quite huge success of his daytime TV show, it most definitely would never have seen the light of a theater projector.
It's probably not difficult to realize that I'm not a fan of "The Jerry Springer Show," although I accept the still unbelievable fact that it's quite popular among its viewers who number in the millions. As such, the most I've seen of the show are clips shown on other programs, but it's not difficult to see what draws in the viewers.
People seem to love watching the Id (Freud's theory of everyone's amoral basic instinct) at work - - especially when displayed in the form of people dwelling well below one's own social circle -- and the show's filled with such people who've slept with, cheated on, or participated in any variety of other sordid behavior that they oddly wish to discuss on national TV. There's been some debate about whether the guests on the show are "real" people or just paid actors, but the show's audience doesn't seem to mind.
Well, in the moronic big screen version of the show, the guests are actors -- loosely labeled as such -- and this isn't a documentary of the talk show. Nor is it a well-deserved spoof, although the show's so far out there, what with the chair throwing and hair pulling behavior, etc..., that mounting a comedy to poke exaggerated fun at it would be next to impossible.
Nonetheless, anything would have been better than this lame, poorly acted and near plot-less mess that serves only to promote the current TV show. While our preview audience -- apparently filled with fans of that show -- seemed to enjoy it, trust us, it's really bad.
Beyond the generally inane concept and the fact that it's nothing more than a longer, unedited and somewhat "fictitious" look at the show, the film's biggest fault is that it's neither funny nor outrageous enough to make it even close to being worthwhile. Although it seems to be poking fun at its guests and target audience (whatever happened to not biting the hand that feeds you?), the flat and stiffly constructed caricature excuses for characters are too far gone to allow the film to eke out any sort of humor from them.
To make matters worse, those expecting a "wild and crazy" version of the TV show will also be disappointed. While there are some bare breasts and sexually related material and profanity (most of which doesn't occur on the film's TV talk show), it's difficult to exceed what already occurs and appears on the show (short of the film showing something that would push it into the NC-17 range). Consequently, the material and events that unfold come off as boring and uneventful.
Springer fans may also be upset to learn that he's far from being the film's central character and isn't really a pivotal piece of the plot. To his credit, Springer doesn't try to play anything apparently more than himself -- although there's a painful and too obvious self-deprecating bit where he tries to sing a country western song and another where he shows off his less than buff physique -- and apparently realizes his limited acting skills.
Nonetheless, his subdued performance and presence robs the film of any last hopes it had for displaying some energy. When he finally gets around to being proactive -- in a "for the masses" speech about his show -- the result is the funniest, albeit unintentional, moment in the film as he claims how important his show is for serving as one of the few outlets for the poor and disfranchised. Sorry Jerry, the only poor people are the ones who have to sit through this travesty.
The rest of the performances are understandably and uniformly bad. Played by a number of actors and actresses who've mostly populated unseen "B" and straight-to-video productions, the characters are nothing but flimsy, cardboard cutouts.
That, coupled with a barely developed "plot" -- courtesy of scribe Jon Bernstein (a TV movie of the week writer) -- that feels about three hours longer than it is, and which wouldn't have cut it even on the lowliest sitcom that's canceled before the end of its first season, ends up resulting in a film that can't be called much more than a complete waste of film stock.
Of course with the film opening right before Thanksgiving, it's a guarantee that many will call this fiasco a "turkey," but that's too easy and far too cruel for those fowl who already face enough problems this time of year without being compared to a mess like this. While diehard Springer fans might find a few small morsels to savor, no one else will. We give "Ringmaster" a 0 out of 10.
![[Screen It]](https://www.screenit.com/images/screenit_subscriber_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
![[Around the World in 80 Days]](https://www.screenit.com/images/posters/movies/around_the_world_in_80_days_2022_small.jpg)
![[Family Camp]](https://www.screenit.com/images/posters/movies/family_camp_small.jpg)
![[Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness]](https://www.screenit.com/images/posters/movies/doctor_strange_in_the_multiverse_of_madness_small.jpg)