Knucklehead

Paul Wight stars in the dire comedy Knucklehead, out on DVD.

Powered by automated translation

Director: Michael Watkins
Starring: Paul Wight, Dennis Farina, Mark Feuerstein and Wendie Malick
*

You have to feel for Paul "The Big Show" Wight. While building a reputation in the WWE as a back-crushing behemoth, he must have thought it would be only a matter of time before he landed a juicy film role to catapult his career into the big leagues. Instead, Wight has been lugged into Knucklehead, a sub-par WWE-produced comedy as clunky as the title suggests.

Wight plays Walter, a quiet simpleton who has spent all his life in an orphanage run by tough-as-nails Sister Francesca (Malick). Walter may be a gentle giant, but he is also clumsy enough to burn the orphanage after an attempt to make breakfast.

Determined to raise the money to save the home, Walter meets Eddie, a con-man with a mobster on his case over a gambling debt, who enters him for a mixed-martial arts competition. There is nothing wrong with sticking to a successful formula, and Knucklehead has the elements of what could be a decent crowd-pleaser.

What we get instead is a string of secondary cheesy plot lines that choke the film before the final fight, among them the cliché of a ragged old trainer who sees his last shot for success with Walter.

And off-course there is the dim-witted Walter who is "doing it for the kids". It will be hard to watch The Big Show on the small screen after this.