When Steve Barker finds himself running dead last in the corporate rat race, he sinks to an all time low--he attempts to rig the Special Olympics by pretending to be intellectually challenged. But, Barker is completely out-classed by his fellow Olympians, who are not only better athletes; they're just plain better people. And they're on to him. But rather than rat-out the rat, they join forces with him to once and for all beat Jimmy, the cocky reigning champion of the annual games. With a work-out regime uniquely their own, they train Barker to go for the gold and, in the process, show him what's at the heart of a true winner.

I don’t know how they could have made this movie and had it work, that is unless they made it twenty years ago. The problem is many movies now have to tiptoe around issues that would be considered politically incorrect and making fun of handicap people and the Special Olympic would fall under that category. The movie does toe the line of being very un-politically correct but the problem is when they try to fix this attitude it becomes too sugary sweet and that is not what the movie needed. I don’t know how anyone but a teenager could find a lot of the scenes with the participants of the Special Olympics that funny even though they were not trying to overly mock handicap people. If we could take a step back and make the movie how it should have been made and that is with a lowlife human really trying to fix the Special Olympics and being fooled and defeated by the handicap that might have worked while it would have set off every pro-PC group. Movies need to be movies sometimes and by trying to make Johnny Knoxville’s character this guy who is only trying to save a friend and is not that despicable the movie misses out on a chance to be truly funny. I did laugh at times but not enough to save this movie from being nothing more than mediocre at best.

Johnny Knoxville can act, I don’t think a lot of people know this because of all the stupid roles he has played but he could have pulled this movie off if they had let him. I shouldn’t like nor care for Knoxville’s character he should be the truly evil despicable human being that would try and fix the Special Olympics not this loved but misguided individual the movie makes him out to be. I wanted the anti-hero not a cuddly teddy bear and the movie clearly drops the ball by giving me such. A lot of the other casting of the movie was questionable as well as most of the actors are handicap but the ones that aren’t stick out like a sore thumb. Its sad in today’s world that movie producers are so afraid of offending someone that they dumb down their movies and in my opinion offend everyone with the lack of effort put into the movie. The movie was funny and it had its moments but it fell well short of its potential.

I take my hat off to all those who participate in the Special Olympics every year, they are true athletes and great people just like you and me. If the movie did anything it did show that being handicap isn’t that bad it’s just something you deal with and move on in life. The movie does show all the handicap people in a good light and does not mock them instead showing them to be as capable and sometimes better than us at many things. It’s ok to laugh because in the end good prevails over evil and you may just leave with a better understanding of those less fortunate than yourselves.
2.5 stars out of 5