Steve Barker is an office drone who wants to move up the corporate ladder, but when he asks his boss for a promotion, it comes with a condition - Steve has to fire Stavi, who has been the firm's janitor for years. Steve decides to soften the blow by hiring Stavi to do his lawn and garden work. However, an accident robs Stavi of several of his fingers, and since he doesn't have medical insurance, Steve needs to find a way to pay for his surgery. Steve's uncle Gary, a sleazy type who will bet on anything, also needs some fast cash, and comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme - Steve was a track star in high school, and with the Special Olympics Championships coming up, all Steve has to do is pretend to be mentally challenged, enter the competition, and win the running events against six-time medalist Jimmy. Gary will bet big on Steve, and the odds will allow them to clean up. Steve is appalled by the idea, but he needs the money badly enough to go along. However, Steve discovers that Jimmy is fast enough that he has little chance of beating him. However, Jimmy's colossal ego has made him many enemies among his fellow Special Olympians, and they're eager enough to see him taken down a peg that they help Steve train for the big event. Matters become all the more complicated when Steve becomes infatuated with Lynn, a beautiful woman who has volunteered to help the challenged athletes, and would doubtless be furious if she found out what Steve was really doing.
I had very, very, very, very low expectations for this film - it does star Johnny Knoxville after all. Why did I watch it, you ask? I'm running out of new movies :-) Anyway, this movie was definitely not as bad as I had expected and was actually pretty funny. As "wrong" as the premise for this film seems, it didn't come off as degrading to mentally challenged people and actually turned out to really show challenged folks in a good light and portrays them as very capable of doing "normal" things. While Knoxville was the lead actor, I thought some of the Special Olympians stole the show and had some of the best lines. I'm not going as far as to say this is a great movie, but it surprised me in how good it was.
Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Would I watch it again: No
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, Katherine Heigl
I typically watch movies on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while riding the ACE Train from Tracy to Santa Clara. The opinions expressed are those of me, myself and I.
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