- 10/23/2010 (1:52:55 am)
- Bob Mulrenin
…
"KNUCKLEHEAD *
A wrestling promoter tries to turn a gigantic simpleton into a star. At Quad Cinema (1:40). PG-13: Comic violence.
Well, at least someone is trying to emulate the Farrelly brothers — except "Knucklehead," director Michael W. Watkins' half-assed, halfhearted attempt to copy the Farrellys' out-there style is missing both their jackassical riffs and their heart.
When a shifty sports promoter (Mark Feuerstein of TV's "Royal Pains") happens upon an overgrown misfit (wrestling star Paul "Big Show" Wight), he thinks he's found his golden ticket. But after he takes the oafish adult out of a nun-run orphanage and onto the mixed-martial-arts circuit, the hijinks they share convince the con man there's more to life than shticky schemes.
There's certainly far less to this infantile movie than co-stars like Wendie Malick and Will Patton
probably knew when they agreed to be part of it. J.N.
Knucklehead
Last Updated: 10:40 AM, October 22, 2010
Posted: 11:09 PM, October 21, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
KNUCKLEHEAD. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 (crude humor, profanity, fighting). At the Quad, 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
A fast-talking fight promoter who needs money to pay off a loan shark stumbles upon a gentle giant who might be the answer to his problems in "Knucklehead," a 2010 movie that could have been made in 1940.
The movie stars Mark Feuerstein of TV's "Royal Pains" as the cynical promoter, and WWE performer Paul "The Big Show" Wight as the big man he meets at an orphanage, where the giant is a hapless bumbler who works with kids because he possesses a sparkly-eyed adolescent soul.
The two of them, plus another orphanage worker (Melora Hardin of "The Office") who seems to be around because the script demands a love interest, travel the back roads to a mixed martial arts tournament in New Orleans as the big fella squashes opponents along the way. Only Dennis Farina, as the loan shark on their trail, injects any life into this tired family comedy from the movie-making arm of WWE.
"Knucklehead" 's candy corn heart and shameless predictability are almost touching in their obliviousness to anything that's happened in movies in recent decades. Cute orphans? Really? But as an actor, Paul Wight is in a class with Andre the Giant.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong in Knucklehead?
A schmaltzy family comedy that won’t pass the smell test for kids, parents, or even stoner second cousins, Knucklehead is too sluggish for young attention spans, and not inventive enough to keep adults engaged. When an orphanage run by a nun (Wendy Malick) and Jan from The Office (Melora Hardin) is almost burned down by orphan-turned-hapless handyman Walter (WWE star Paul Wight), they have seven days to raise 25 grand for repairs. Meanwhile, a sketchy mixed-martial-arts manager named Eddie (Mark Feuerstein) is desperate to come up with a fighter he can con out of a huge championship purse. Eddie meets all 7 feet and 440 pounds of the congenitally meek Walter by crazy coincidence and, with some nunly coaxing, persuades him to kick some remunerative ass. Walter fights a bear, a crazy dad, and a fleet of frat boys on the amateur circuit, winning mostly by default; the man is literally too big to fail. TV veteran Michael Watkins directs, and sub-sitcom humor prevails—every comic beat seems to have arrived from an echo chamber that hosted its last laugh in 1974. Which is, incidentally, the year wrestler Alex Karras knocked out a horse and stole the show in Blazing Saddles.
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