The overexposure of talk show host/referee Jerry Springer continues--and
hopefully ends--with this insipid bottom-brow comedy which, according to a
closing disclaimer, is _not_ "intended to depict any actual participant in,
or aspect of, _The_Jerry_Springer_Show_, which is broadcast on television."
Funny, because the centerpiece of this film is a salacious, fight- and
profanity-filled talk show called _Jerry_, hosted by a guy referred to in
the film simply as, yes, "Jerry" (played by Springer, natch). Mercifully,
although he is given above-the-title billing, Springer is made a mere
supporting player by writer Jon Bernstein and director Neil Abramson;
anyone who's seen the "Final Thought" segment of Springer's show knows how
well he _doesn't_ hold the screen. Not so mercifully, though, Abramson
allots some of Springer's limited screen time for a painful country-western
musical number and--yikes--a fleeting but no less ghastly Springer sex scene.
Instead, Abramson and Bernstein cast their focus (using that term very
loosely) on two separate groups of people who are tapped to appear on
_Jerry_ for different topics, only to end up intertwining. Receiving the
most screen time are a mother-daughter pair of trailer park trollops. The
daughter (Jaime Pressly), who indiscriminately has (to use the President's
euphemism) "inappropriate relationships" with random guests at the hotel
she works at, is sleeping with her stepfather (Michael Dudikoff of
_American_Ninja_, er, fame). In retaliation, the mother (Molly Hagan)
starts having her daughter's fiance (Ashley Holbrook). Slightly more
amusing is the other group, a trio of ghetto stereotype girls (Wendy Raquel
Robinson, Tangie Ambrose, and Nicki Micheaux) who have all, at one point or
another, fallen into the bed of musclebound studmuffin Demond (charismatic
_Spawn_ and _Tyson_ star Michael Jai White, who can certainly find better
work than this).
What ensues is tons of "too hot for TV" tawdriness that, ironically,
enough, is not compulsively watchable as Springer's two _Too_Hot_for_TV!_
videos--nor nowhere nearly as funny. Part of the reason is that we are
acutely aware that all the outrageousness is staged; regardless of whether
or not any of Springer's TV guests' tussles are rehearsed, those fights do
feature nonprofessionals inflicting real harm on each other--which is part
of the show's sadistic guilty pleasure factor. But the main reason is the
amateurish sloppiness of the entire movie, from the acting to the countless
glitches in logic and continuity. (For example, Springer's character's
last name, according to the credits, is "Farrelly," but in one
autograph-signing scene, he signs his last name as "Springer.") Stay home
and watch the genuine article instead.