AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

johnhernandez-67188 This movie still holds up. I've been on a kick of wrestling films and wanted to see what I thought of this one again. love the insight and the stories of Foley, The rock and of course Vince. I don't think they've ever made a film quite like this before. There is quite a lot of ugly in it - and I can see why most people think the world is a dark place. Regardless of this, it's a piece of wrestling history and it's important it was captured. Nice to see where everyone is now after almost 20 years later!! WWE is still going strong and there is just something in this sport that keeps on giving. I also get quite emotionally during some of the scenes with Foly and Jake -- not easy to watch and borders on exploitative, but again I think it's the time period it was made. Wonder what they would get now..

ironhorse_iv A Sport Documentary with Attitude, Director Barry Blaustein focuses on the lives of pro-wrestlers both inside and outside of the ring, primarily Mick Foley, Terry Funk, and Jake the Roberts. These three will make up the bulk of the documentary time focus on them. Mick Foley aka Mankind, Catcus Jack, and Dude Love is a man on the top of his career, famous for taking increasingly risky bumps (Stunts) whom family is worry about his safety. In one famous scene, Mick Foley's family watching ring side is nearly put into tears after seeing their father and husband be beaten up by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson at a WWE PPV 'Royal Rumble'. Mick can't see that the abuse he takes on his body is hurting his family. Another wrestler focus on is Terry Funk whom can't find himself retiring even with him being 53 years old at the time of shooting and past his prime. Terry Funk represent the man who would die in the ring, rather than quit the business. A Randy 'The Ram' Robinson like personality whom just looking for the next big comeback. Lastly, the film focus on a wrestler who is at his rock bottom. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts whom popularity height reach in the 1980's is now in the late 1990's a crack cocaine addict that estranged from everybody he call family. His daughter wants no part of him, and his father doesn't want to speak to him. Yes, there will be short knit bits of other wrestlers in the film, such as short lived career puking Darren Drozdov, the movie star dreaming New Jack, and two wrestlers Tony Jones and Michael Modest trying to get a try out. The director spent three years endeavoring to understand the mindset of someone who would voluntarily choose to become a professional wrestler. Blaustein interviews a wide variety of wrestling personalities and ascertains their motivations. What the movie lacks is interviews with the big time wrestlers of the time, Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and The Rock. It would be nice to see what their take on the business is. Another problem with the film is while they were able to film both in Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federeration, I felt that when World Championship Wrestling refused to participate in the film, it really made the film missing opinions of those wrestlers. The interview questions could have been more driven to talking about more serious key issues dealing with pro-wrestling such as steroids, wrestling union, and the sense of faking- violence. There are a couple of laughs in the movie, but the overall effect is much more depressing than it is humorous. The self-mutilations in the movie might be hard to watch for non-wrestling fans. For the wrestling fans, this is a must watch, so check it out.

Tss5078 Adult professional wrestling fans aren't stupid, we know wrestling is fake and the outcomes are pre-determined. What none fans don't realize is why we like it. It's the drama, the pageantry, the cheesy stories, the costumes, and most of all the action. Yes, it's pre-determined and choreographed, but you still need to be charismatic and athletic, and night after night these guys put their bodies on the line just for our entertainment. People have been killed and paralyzed doing this, so to anyone who says it's not real and takes no skill, I point to this documentary. Beyond The Mat looks into the lives of these guys outside the ring and show the ancient Terry Funk, whose body has been ravaged from years in the ring. He can barely walk anymore, but still has to get in there and has to do this because it's all he knows and what he loves. Jake "The Snake" Roberts is also featured and he talks about how eight years on the road with WWE and how it made him a neglectful father, a bad husband, and a drug addict. Roberts says between the pain and the constant moving around he could never have done it without drugs! Finally, they look at Mick Foley AKA Mankind, Dude Love, Cactus Jack and show how he's this normal family man and while his family knows it's for show, how much they worry. In the last 30 years, hundreds of pro-wrestlers have died under the age of 45, most of them due to the physical trauma they've put their bodies through or the dependence on drugs that has resulted from it. If those were NFL or MLB stars instead, there would be massive reform and congressional intervention, but the truth is no one cares about these guys, except of course their families, friends, and fans. Beyond The Mat is important because it shows just what these guys put on the line and just how little the people at the top care.

Cosmoeticadotcom One of the oldest filmic clichés is that there's nothing sadder than an old boxer, a washed up pug. To that I might state that only an old wrestler is sadder. After all, wrestling is not a true sport- it's a violent theatrical production, and there is not much at stake for the viewers. As for the wrestlers, themselves….that's where this documentary from 2000 comes in. Directed by first time auteur Barry Blaustein it chronicles the re-rise of pro wrestling to prominence in the late 1990s- the era that saw Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Cactus Jack become celebrities of a greater nature than any of their forebears, like Killer Kowalski, Dusty Rhodes, Bruno Sammartino, or Hulk Hogan. The film starts off as an exploration of the men behind the 'names', yet it makes a mistake right off the bat, by billing itself as an exposé of the sport, a film that 'Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see'. McMahon, to those in the know, is the owner of the largest wrestling league in the nation- the WWE, then the WWF, but there's little in the film to suggest that this is a tell-all. There are some wrestlers with gripes, and we see tales of failed lives, and failed wrestling circuits, like the ECW and WCW (long since bought out by the WWE), and McMahon's league certainly has a history of dealing in drugs (steroids, etc.- as the aforementioned Hogan testified against him in a highly publicized trial in the early 90s), as well as being shamefully anti-union, and not caring of its performers (not long after the film's release one of its wrestlers- Owen Hart, of a well-known wrestling clan- was killed in a spectacular fashion while performing, and the film acknowledges that one of its minor characters, Droz, was paralyzed not long after the film was completed), but all of this is public knowledge, and old news.What works, though is the portrait of the biz the film portrays, and the three main wrestlers whose lives it follows…. The film has its moments of poignancy and insight, but they are too few and far between. A more pristine and jaded eye would have been necessary, and a more ballsy approach to the subject matter, to gain a following outside the 'choir' of pro wrestling. Still, since I go to those pews, every few years, I think it's a must see for any wrestling fan. The game has changed much during the decades, yet, in a sense, it hasn't changed at all. Whether good or bad is the crux, and what this film passes on.