Slammed! follows the misadventures of two late teen wrestling fanatics, Derek (Zachery Ty Bryan who played Brad Taylor on TV's Home Improvements) and Jeff (Justin Whalin of Dungeons And Dragons and Child's Play 3). The two pals work together as busboys at a restaurant called 'The Four Buckles.' This is a real perk for the pair as every weekend the restaurant hosts a local bar scene wrestling tournament, which of course is right up their alley.

Derek and Jeff hope that they'll be able to use these amateur matches to get themselves some experience and one day make it to the big leagues. They idolize a professional wrestler named 'The Slammer' (Sasha Mitchell of Kickboxer parts 2, 3 and 4!) and are bound and determined to make it to his level of popularity in the ring, and to win as many championships and title matches as he has.

Derek and Jeff figure they're going to need a little bit of help to get there though. The boys rig one of the matches so that Jeff can win against 'Switchblade Rick' to win a week of training with The Slammer, a sure-fire way to make it big. But of course, things don't go as planned and The Slammer doesn't turn out to be the guy that Derek and Jeff thought he'd be.

The film's director, Brian Thomas Jones, comes to the table with primarily television and small feature directing experience (he worked on Beetleborgs and Sweet Valley High in the mid 90s) but handles the chore reasonably well in this feature. The film is well shot and properly paced with some fun wrestling scenes and a couple of cute moments in the story that play well on the screen. It doesn't look like a Fellini film but hey, it's an indy comedy about wannabe wrestlers, obviously it doesn't need to. Jones makes sure that there's enough wrestling action, hot and scantily clad women (highlighted by the lovely Josie Davis, formerly of Beverly Hills 90210 in the role of Shane), and goofy humor on hand to ensure that the film is at the very least and entertaining one, even if it's never going to play a huge arthouse circuit or win any Academy Awards.

Some of the jokes work really well, some not so well. The timing of the central characters is usually spot on, meaning there are a few more hits than misses, but there are still a few too many jokes that misfire a wee bit to make this a total laugh riot. Still though, it's not bad for what it is and its always interesting to chart the progression of a child star in his later acting career, in this case Zachery Bryan.

Video:

Slammed! is presented in its original aspect ratio of approximately 1.78.1. The widescreen transfer looks pretty good for a low budget film, although there are a few scenes where the lighting is a little bit off. Edge enhancement is present, as is some extremely mild grain, but they're never to the point of distraction or where it is a true detriment to the film. Flesh tones and black levels are stable and deep looking.