The Ring Thing (2004) Online

It was meant to be a parody on the LOTR-Trilogy. But this was one of the most awful movies I've ever seen. Bad acting, bad screenplay, bad everything. THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION. I don't doubt any second that there are people who'll like this sense of "humor", but there have been better parodies on movies from acclaimed directors as Mel Brooks or the Zucker Brothers. I'm working in a movie theater and in DVD Shop and the success for this movie was similar in both areas: At the movies it was a nice (but no big at all) success during the first two weeks but then, when the reviews of those who have seen it were not too good, the movie dropped very fast. In DVD sales it was good for short time but then nobody asked for it anymore. In the last ten years, the two worst movies I've seen are The Ring Thing and Torque. I can't decide which one was worse, but I'm happy that there a so many good movies so I don't have to think too much on this question.

I'm from Switzerland and i've seen the movie a few months ago. And i was really surprised when i came a few minutes ago to this Movie at the IMDb and didn't find no comment on it. So i thought i should might write one, because folks could be interested in this movie. OK first of all my rating for it: 6/10. The style of the film very much relies on the concept of the "Scary Movie" Series. There is really funny stuff in there. And if you liked "Scary Movie" and it's sequels you should watch this film. Now to the story: Friedo (Frodo) works at a Bank. Through a Plane Crash he falls into Middle-Earth. There he meats Almghandi (Gandalf, means in English as much as: Alpine Ghandi) this is the most crazy character i've ever seen in a comedy. He really makes you laugh. Together with Almghandi, Friedo tries to free his future-girlfriend Heidi, which was captured by Sauraus (Sauron, in English "Pig-Out" or "Let a pig out" or so) who tries to destroy Middle-Earth with "Fondue" (Our national dish, hot cheese). Some jokes may not be understand by audiences of other countries, because they're very much orientated on Switzerland. I know the movie was successful in our country but i don't think it will be released in other countries, because the most successful movie ever in Switzerland "Achtung, Fertig, Charlie!" has only be released to Russia. But you can hope. And i hope this comment was a help to you, thanks for reading.

This movie is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. There is absolutely no storyline, the gags are only for retards and there is absolutely nothing else that would make this movie worth watching. In the whole movie Fredi (oh my god what a funny name. ha ha) doesn't ask himself ONCE how he came from a plane to middle earth. There are plenty of stupid and totally unfunny characters whose names should sound funny. e.g. : Gandalf is called Almghandi, Sam is called Pupsi ... and so on. I didn't even smile once during the whole movie. The gags seem like they were made by people whose IQ is negative. If you laugh when someone's coat is trapped in the door (this happens about 5 times) then this movie is perhaps for you. Another funny scene: They try to guess the code word for a closed door (don't ask why- don't ever ask "why" in this movie) and the code word is (ha ha): dung. So if you laughed at this examples you might like this movie. For everybody else: Go to Youtube and watch "Lord of the Weed": it's a lot, lot more fun.

"The Ring Thing" was released back in 2004, back when the "Lord of the Rings" hype was at its peak. So writer and director Marc Schippert and his 5 co-writers decided to spoof this legendary Tolkien trilogy in this one. And the overall result is not bad really. The best thing about it is probably that it does not take itself seriously for a single second. That is also why, in my opinion, they manage to get away with the cheesiest and most childish jokes without making it look ridiculous in a bad way. They included most of the central characters from "lord of the Rings" in slightly altered Swiss versions. In general, you can see very easily that it's a Swiss film. Lots of the comedy is based on the country's history and traditions such as the way that the evil guy wants to destroy the world or a Wilhelm Tell reference too. I watched "lord of the Weed" in the past and did not find it particularly amusing, but "The Ring Thing" was a fairly solid watch with the way it's always so shamelessly over-the-top. I liked it and I recommend it. I'd probably not recommend it to hardcore fans of the Peter Jackson films if they will certainly be offended watching this unless they have an actually great sense of humor. Sadly, this film's backlash may be one of the reasons why the director does not shoot new films these days anymore. Oh yeah and one final note, they kept this fairly essential, which is a good thing because they did not include too many stupid and unfunny scenes. The film does not even reach the 80 minute mark and that already includes the closing credits.

I guess this movie will only work on people who were all turned off by the giant hype of Lord of the Rings. Well, so I was. And so I really love this movie. Especially I like all those flawless superheroes from LotR being so perfectly and disrespectfully parodied. Most brilliantly is the counterpart of Gandalf (the brave and wise and completely humorless know-it-all wizard): Almghandi, the cowardice and brain dead transvestite. Sauron's counterpart ("Sauraus" from East Germany, of course) is wearing a simply bucket with eye holes as a helmet. Aragorns alter ego is yet another accident prone idiot who tries to fix his broken sword ("Ulrike" the legend) with scotch tape. And "Strunzdumm" (the counterpart of Wormtong) indeed has some strong resemblance with Brad Dourif! And don't forget Grmpfli and Heidi... huh-huh

It was considered to be the "Swiss answer to the Lord of the Rings", but it is much more than that. It isn't an answer to anything, it's in itself something new, something funny and sometimes it's downright stupid and silly - but was Monty Python any different than silly?

The beginning immediately makes the statement that this film is low budget and not meant to be taken entirely seriously. Cardboard clouds on strings knock into the airplane in which the main character is seated. But, to compensate the missing special effects, the landscape does the trick. It is absolutely beautiful and stunning - who needs New Zealand, Switzerland has it all.

What I liked about the film was the simple approach and the obvious passion and energy that went into it. It isn't brilliant; yet it's got some good humorous parts. Edward Piccin as Friedo is absolutely convincing, it would be enough to go and see the film because of him!There are some good jokes, some of them are very lame, some of them won't be understood by people outside of Switzerland. I liked the idea of having "Urucows" instead of Uruk Hai; I loved the scene where Friedo decides to take "Pupsi", a telehobbie, with him on the journey. Also very funny is the scene when Rackaroll, the sword-fighting knight, decides to show off with his sword - and subsequently smashes it into a wall, breaking it. And there is this one scene where the "nazgul-ish" characters do a wonderfully comic scene that includes a toilet brush... I didn't approve of the idea of the Ring being used by Schleimli, the "Gollum" character, in order to "seduce" the ladies. That was a bit far fetched. The idea of Lord Sauraus wanting to cover the lands with fondue wasn't that brilliant either. Original, certainly, but not brilliant. But most of all did I dislike the idea of a gay dragon, that really wasn't necessary. All in all I recommend to see the film simply because it is so crazy and totally trashy. Don't expect a LotR parody like "Spaceballs" was for Star Wars. But if you go to the flicks thinking that this is going to be an amusing evening out, with absolutely no ambitions, then you'll enjoy. I am not sure if it works in other languages, because it does live from the Swiss dialects as well as from the jokes and actors.

All in all: hat off to the courage of the Swiss crew who did that!

i'm not quite a big big fan of parodies, but i really ended up liking this one:)! i was constantly chuckling about the little stupid jokes they put and sometimes really laughed out loud. i think most of the jokes won't get to foreigners since they are very swiss-related and i think that's why i found it so funny, since they use tiny things to make fun of the swiss culture, or to show it off:)! i specially loved when they were swearing - i mean, when do we ever get to hear that in a movie, in our own language:)?! i found the similarities between the actors and the "real" actors of lord of the rings quite stunning and somehow the funniest - because it made you think of the real "LOTR" actors in a stupid situation like in "the ring thing". (it reminded me a lot of the "very secret diaries" of LOTR). the characters played their role very well, i specially liked the spoiled elven girl and the parody of gollum - i couldn't stop stunning about how good they did their job! what i also really liked is that in comparison to other parodies you can actually sometimes even see their low budget solutions in the movie which somehow made it even funnier - specially the opening sequence which i found very well done:)! if you are open minded for a different culture and like parodies with lots of stupid jokes in it then you're going to like this one:)! try it!!!

As this movie is completely in Swiss dialect, it's probably hard for most German speakers to really follow this movie. I'm not from Switzerland, but I worked there for some years, so I had the chance to understand this great spoof of the Lord of the Rings. I've seen a lot of movies of this kind (eg. Scary Movie, loads of Scifi spoofs etc.) but this one is the best one of that kind, I've seen so far. I give a 9 of 10. The only reason I can't give a 10 is, because there are some little details which could have been done better and because they supplied no subtitles in any language on the DVD, so there's almost no chance for non-Swiss to understand.