Customer Reviews

Ringmaster!

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This weekend I was depressed. I felt I didn't make enough money, am stuck in a dead-end computer job, up to my neck in debt, am fat and ugly (I'm a 38 Asian-Latino male with braces!), and had serious doubts about my current relationship until I watched this movie. This movie made me laugh at my self-doubts, with a truly ridiculous zing. This movie proves no matter how bad things can get, there are a lot of other Americans out there with lives much worse than mine. I'm a big fan of Jerry Springer. I think he shows the side of America most of us want to sweep under the rug. As his interview on Good Morning America pointed out, it's acceptable when Arnold or Bruce show violence. Or, it's acceptable when our elected governmental officials sleep around, embezzle, or yell at one another during law making sessions. No one tells the story of these people, except him.

Jerry! Jerry!

The crowd chants wildly. However, one must look past this seemingly low-class, degrading form of entertainment. I found this work quite refreshing.

As a scholar, I do not get the chance to fully appreciate the world around me. For this reason, I miss out on meeting many of my fellow men and women. I have lost touch with the average joe and I find this quite disheartening.

However, Mr. Springer has given me the chance to connect with millions of Americans. These people real and their stories are not made up. Springer vividly portrays the joys, sorrows, and anguish that these brave men and women are facing. Perhaps the most touching was the story of the 400 pound man that left his wife for a 3 foot tall transvestite.

I really feel that reading this book helps me appreciate the needs of others. I am forced to realize that all around me, people are suffering. I am spurred on to be a better person because of Mr. Springer and his friends.

I too can chant "Jerry! Jerry!" with pride. Thank you Jerry.

Let me state here and now: I loathe the "Jerry Springer" TV show. I think it's contemptible the way he exploits the vulnerabilities of low-income people desperate for their fifteen minutes of fame, encourages them to bare all their sordid secrets on nationwide TV, and then claims he's doing it all for a greater good. So I expected to loathe this movie when I caught it on late night TV recently, and instead ended up on the floor laughing myself halfway into a coma. So why would I like this film, trashy as it is, and hate the show?

One reason is Springer's ability to spoof himself; he has the grace not to take himself too seriously; he knows exactly what a schlockmeister he is, and he plays himself to the hilt in this movie. Another is that while on the TV we only see the people doing their bad thing on stage (and the audience egging them on with howls of "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"), in the film we see the hacks and flacks who help to prey on these people and get them to make themselves look their very worst in front of a national audience. And thirdly, the characters in the film are so over-the-top, so grotesquely stereotyped, we can safely laugh at them because they look so unreal.

Here are Angel and Starletta, trailer trash and ghetto trash, winning the chance of a life time to appear on TV as the subjects of segments of "My traitor friends" and "You did WHAT with your stepdaddy?!" Angel is a 17 year old motel maid with a mother only 15 years her senior, sharing a trailer with mom's hubby, with whom Angel is having an affair, right under mom's nose. And don't think mom doesn't know what her skanky offspring is up to; when mom crashes the party and catches the two of them in the act, she goes right off and turns the tables with Angel's sort-of-fiance. Meanwhile, Starletta has caught her supposed best friend in bed with her no-good philandering boytoy Demond, amid a great deal of hair-pulling and name-calling.

Angel, Starletta, and their entourages are all called to LA to appear on Jerry's show, but Angel's stepdad gets cold feet at the last minute, realizing some things are too private to be discussed on TV, and walks out. Not to worry; there's plenty of adventure on the side between Angel and the philandering Demond, who somehow gets inveighled into getting it on with Angel's mom as well. Turns out that there is action galore for the show even without the stepdad. When Starletta's two-timing girlfriends announce from the audience they caught Angel with Demond, Starletta rushes the stage (amid the usual howls of "Jerry") and goes for Angel literally tooth and nail; and when Angel's clueless boyfriend, who looks like the only word he is capable of is "Duh", turns out to have been awake at the switch after all and announces to nationwide TV that Angel is carrying her stepdaddy's baby (Mom didn't know THAT tidbit), all hell breaks loose. The show segments of the film look a lot like what's shown on TV, with the notable exception that the bleeped-out words are very much unbleeped (if profanity disturbs you, get some earplugs to watch this movie with), and the nudity isn't pixeled into abstraction.

This is a film to watch if you're in the mood for some mindless diversion, which everybody needs from time to time. Just be warned that to watch this movie in VHS, you will have to scroll through 18 minutes of commercials to get to the start of the film. Get the DVD.

I love Jerry Springer's 'Ringmaster' book; this book is about the Jerry show and yet more exclusively about Jerry himself; and especially about his past - pictures of his family, himself as a child..facts and memories on his childhood, family and 'his years' up to now. Jerry becomes pretty personal in his 'Ringmaster' book, and his honesty is as clear as ever. For anyone who is a Springer fan-this is a god-send. For anyone who isnt a Springer fan..why not..the read is just as good.

This book is not worth buying because it does not complete the interpretation that it is a backstage uncensored pass to the Jerry Springer Show. It has about 50 pages about the show and the rest is about Jerry's life. Get this book from the library because once you read it you will be glad you didn't buy it.

"Ringmaster" pretty much shows what it's like to be a guest on a talk show. The show in this movie is about stepfathers who have been sleeping with their stepdaughters. There's a lot of conflict between the guests on the show and a group of blacks that are staying in a room nearby. Of course a fight breaks out on stage along with a lot of arguing.

"Ringmaster" also features some other things that go on behind the scenes of "The Jerry Springer Show" such as the women all wanting Springer's autograph and to talk to him in private. "Ringmaster" isn't that bad of a movie really. It has a few funny parts to it and it'll keep you entertained throughout most of the movie. It's also true to what "The Jerry Springer Show" was really like. My only complaints were that after awhile, the arguing between the families gets old and that the movie was a little slow getting to the good parts. However, if you've ever enjoyed watching "The Jerry Springer Show," you will probably like "Ringmaster."

everything thing was great. The fights, the arguements, the show in itself was amazing to watch. Great movie for Jerry Springer fans.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be an even equal balance between Jerry's private live, from growing up to his political and early television career, and also with talking about the show. It was a clean 50/50 mix. I would have liked to learn more about his personal life as it is now or in the 90's but only one small chapter covers his wife and daughter. He does make a point of saying he likes to keep these issues private and I think we have to respect that. The thing I didn't like about the book was the beginning and how it lead you in referring to Jerry dying and being on God's Talk Show. I found it to be bad taste and didn't enjoy that but ended up just ignoring that aspect and focused on what Jerry was saying and I was also let down by the ending that I felt wasn't really and ending. Would have been good if he had an extra chapter closing the book. Overall though, I must be fair and say this is a biography and I found it very interesting reading. Thanks for a good book Jerry....

Recently (July 2002), TV GUIDE listed the 50 worst television shows of all time, and it probably comes as no surprise to readers of this review that THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW was the winner. This is not to say that RINGMASTER is the worst movie of all time, but in its moral sleaziness, it must surely rank in the top (bottom?) ten. What director Neil Abramson has done is to craft a movie that is a 90 minute behind the scenes peek at Springer's daily fare. Much of the same focus of the television series is the center of the movie as well. Neither the television show nor the movie has a plot worthy of the name. Instead Springer is the surprisingly passive host of a series of loosely connected vignettes that revolve around outrageous sexual situations that in their totality suggest that mainstream America is far more unsettled than it probably is. In RINGMASTER, Springer allows a mother-daughter combo to air their rivalry over sleeping with a man played by Michael Dudikoff, the action star who ought to have known better than to sign on the dotted line for this one. Although it is entirely possible that two attractive women could be in such a situation, one is left gasping at Springer's undoubtedly correct assumption that there is a huge market for such frank admissions. As these women in the movie and similar such daily strip and mock battle their significant others while the crowd is prompted to chant in unison to the action on stage, the real stars begin to emerge. Those in the studio audience and those watching on television see a vicarious ugliness in their lives that no amount of concluding serious-sounding final thoughts by Jerry can justify.

Jerry Springer is the first to admit his television show is a circus.

Still, there's something that millions of people are tuning in for - the outrageous topics and warrring guests on "The Jerry Springer Show". This book is a bit like watching an episode of the show: fun, but eventually you get overloaded with enough wacky information.

It's also like the show in that you'll forget about it soon after reading it.

Jerry lets us learn a little bit about his past and how he came to host such a bizarre 'chat' show. The writing style is very informal which makes this a quick, easy read.

The perfect companion for a few free hours, but if you can't stand the show...stay well clear. There's nothing here to persuade you to like either Jerry or the show if you don't already.