surprising

a movie about jackass' knoxville fixing the special olympics. its bound to be bad, right? well, its not.

you get the feeling watching this that there was a lot of 'consulting' done with the special olympics foundation and much was done to guide this into a movie that didn't offend anyone. and as it turns out thats a good thing. knoxville in particular comes off looking like a saint (thats a masterpiece of skilled promotion if i've ever seen one). but give all those envolved here credit, they came out of it with a damn fine comedy that doesn't disparage any of the special people. it also gives some of them a moment to shine in a movie and show that they also have acting skills worthy of further adventures. frankly knoxville is the week link in acting in the movie (except perhaps for the overacted uncle).

the plot: knoxville gets promoted but has to fire a janitor whom he puts to work for himself. the janitor, an uninsured illegal immigrant, is injured and now knoxville has to come up with money for his surgury. an uncle who is over his head in debt in gambling cooks up a scheme to have knoxville play 'retarded' and win the special olympics in an upset. along the way theres a love story, but much of the film is about the athletes and knoxville's charactor's growing appreciation of them. you know where its all going from the start, but its worth the trip despite that.

all in all this is a good movie, a good comedy, a nice story, and well worth seeing.

ps. the dvd extras are hit and miss. some of the deleted scenes could've been left in. only a few are truly bad. its good to see more about the special olympics and more of those actors, there could be more to this effect however. the worse of it is the constant patting themselves on the back while name dropping the special olympics involvement. its comes off far more like pandering and self promotion. it was better left without.

8/10