Ringers: Lord of the Fans Movie Review

Every good geek franchise has a corresponding picture about its freaky fanatics. Star Trek has Trekkies (1 and 2), Star Wars has The Phandom Menace, and Lord of the Rings has Master of the Rings. Er, and this film, Ringers (a term I don't believe is actually used by anyone, but I guess it's less insulting than "lordies" or "ringies"), which feels more than a little late to the party.

Ringers isn't just a fun-poking exercise like most of its brethern. Primarily it's an exhaustive history of Lord of the Rings, from J.R.R. Tolkein's life and times through such curiosities as Leonard Nimoy's ballad of Bilbo Baggins (google it) to the animated attempts at making the books into movies in the 1970s and '80s. Sure, the fans are covered, in part, and there are a few gems among them. My favorites are the ones who claim to be really into Tolkein, yet show up at the film's "confessional" booth dressed as Klingons or, inexplicably, as Johnny Depp's character from Pirates of the Caribbean. This largely passes without comment: In fact, that's the movie's major failing. It's far too respectful -- fawning, really -- of the obsessed fan base of Lord of the Rings to be truly entertaining. Hell, Dominic Monaghan, who played one of the hobbits, narrates the thing with an air of something that approaches austerity.

In lieu of offering us a lurid freakshow, the film spends a lot lof time with random celebrities who happen to like the books. I'm not talking about Elijah Wood and Peter Jackson -- as they and everyone else in the cast appears at some point in the film. I'm talking about David Carradine and Lemmy from Motorhead. I'm talking about Geddy Lee, from Rush, who wrote a song about Rivendell when he was 25 years old.

If you're the kind of person who spent more than an hour in line for any of the three films in the trilogy, you'll feel honored that someone actually made a film about you: In fact, you'll probably wonder why you aren't in it. If you're just a casual fan, you'll find Ringers' history lesson interesting, but its entertainment value sorely lacking.