Against the Ropes (Full Screen Edition)

Starring:Sean Bell, Joseph Cortese, Timothy Daly, Reg Dreger, Jared Durand, Omar Epps, Arturo Fresolone, Diego Fuentes, Juan Carlos HernÃ¡ndez, Tory Kittles, Gene Mack, Holt McCallany, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Dean McDermott, Meg Ryan, Tony Shalhoub, Beau Starr, Angelo Tucci, Kerry Washington
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

The Rocky formula nearly wears out its welcome in Against the Ropes, a highly fictionalized feel-good drama based on the life of pioneering female boxing promoter Jackie Kallen. In an egregious effort to distill the essence of Kallen's achievement, director Charles S. Dutton (who fared better with HBO's The Corner) has strictly played it safe, delivering a foregone conclusion almost from the very first scene. Burdened with a by-the-numbers screenplay by Cheryl Edwards (Save the Last Dance), the film gets a much-needed boost from Meg Ryan, playing Kallen as a brassy, smoky-voiced dynamo, rising to the challenge when a rival promoter (played with fierce bravado by Tony Shalhoub) dares her to play hardball in a male-dominated sport. Jackie's trump cards are Luther (Omar Epps), a promising contender with untried talent, and a once-legendary trainer (played by director Dutton) coaxed out of retirement to guide Luther to the middleweight championship. No surprises here, just a handful of energetic performances, an abundance of raw ambition, obligatory setbacks, and the nagging feeling that you've seen it all before. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

An interesting AND Exciting Movie, no matter what the negatives say!!!.......2006-09-19

9-18-2006

I just borrowed this movie from my city library. It seems sometimes that some people have an urge to be negative, maybe because THEY can't act! THEY can't Write! THEY can't Direct!

Meg Ryan as usual, was cute, though more mature, AND SEXY, as usual.

Omar Epps was excellent, & it was enjoyable how he eventually showed he had a heart, even though he was a former Drug Dealer whom Jackie Kallen turned around & really cared to help him show his future Championship attitude in many ways.

Charles S. Dutton, I believe is an excellent actor & did a fine job in Directing this film... Those who complained are the people who can NOT doing anything, except complain.

I was unhappy about Jackie's success going to her own head, as if SHE were the ONLY reason for "Their" Success, but quite happy when she finally saw her jerky-self-centeredness that had become her & she changed & was not afraid to apologize for her stupid selfishness.

I cheered, along with the boxing crowd for Luther, for Jackie, for Felix AND for Jackie's office friend & her TV Friend whom she had also screwed-over, but apologized to.

It does leave you with a Good feeling, whether you are a man, or a woman... You know, women should be loved for their beauty AND their Brains, as well as those who have the
"Stick-to-itiveness" qualities that Jackie, Luther AND Felix had.

I cheer them, and ALL people like them, clapping as if I were with them at the fight. AND... a HUGE BOOING of those Negative Reviewers who can do nothing else, but be negative!!!

I MUST also congratulate Tony Shalub whom has really grown into an Excellent,Quite Versatile Actor... Good job Tony!!!

I immediately contacted Amazon to look for this movie I WILL Happily add this to my 500-600 Video library collection!!!

BUY IT!!! YOU WILL BE HAPPY YOU DID!!!
J. Rodrigues
[...]

Love her wardrobe but not the film........2006-07-31

Against the Ropes directed by actor Charles S. Dutton looks like a fun and edgy film but unfortantely falls flat 20 minutes into the movie. I adore Meg Ryan, she is funny, sarcastic, and fearless as real-life boxing promoter Jackie Kallan but this boring film couldn't save Ryan's potential as an actress. Looks like everyone agrees with me that Against the Ropes is nothing to rave about, this film tries to be like Rocky but Rocky it ain't. Rent Raging Bull instead.

An entertaining view of Meg Ryan's new image.......2005-11-28

Apparently since her failed romance with Russell Crowe during filming of the 2000 film "Proof of Life", Meg Ryan has cultivated a bad girl image. She tried with limited success to show her bad girl side in a lot of simlulated sex scenes in the 2003 flop "In The Cut". I think she has more success in the transition here playing real life boxing manager Jackie Kallen.

While the film parallels some of Kallen's activiites, "Against The Ropes" is clearly a Hollyoodized view of the boxing game and its regime. Ryan, as Kallen, finds a nobody in a local gym and turns him into a champion, all the time working against the good old boys network to get venues for her burgeoning champ -- who leaves her at the end to work for her enemy. Fortunately everything works out in the end and everyone is happy. The script at the end notes Kallen's real life achievements.

I think Ryan is much closer to achieving the second dimension of her image here than in that other movie. She dresses great all the time with trashy outfits that show off her curves. She baits men with her figure and uses it to get what she wants -- just like women do in real life. She isn't nearly as tough as Kallen but her character exhibits a sticktoittiveness that demonstrates the resolve of the real life manager.

My wife has recently taken boxing training, not to become a puncher but to keep in good shape. She works out twice a week in a gritty urban gym and hangs out with trainers and boxing managers that think their new kid is a rising star. She enjoyed this flick and saw some of life's realities in the workup to the boxing scenes.

I'd recommend this DVD to anyone that wants to see an entertaining sports management movie or anyone that wants to see Meg Ryan's development as an R-rated actress. You won't see anything as graphic as "Raging Bull" or as poetic as "Requiem for a Heavyweight" herein. But you will see a solidly entertaining movie with a feel good ending.

would've made a decent TV "Movie of the Week"..........2005-04-29

Against The Ropes isn't as awful as you might think after reading some of the reviews here, but it IS a fairly vanilla storyline that takes few risks. Considering that it deals with the world of boxing promotion, it should've been less slick and more seedy. Having said that, I liked it well enough...maybe not in a "I need to buy this DVD" kind of way, but it makes for a decent rainy day viewing, or maybe as a non-threatening date flick to check out. Meg Ryan carries the film for the most part, turning in a credible performance, not to mention showing alot of sex appeal...but without her, this movie would've gone down for the count.

Was Tom Hanks in this movie?.......2005-03-31

It is embarrassing to see Hollywood have their hands so deep into a project that you can already tell how the film will end before you even finish watching the opening credits. You could even possibly tell how the film will end, and how most of the main conflicts will be resolved, from a true Hollywood preview. This is exactly the case with Against the Ropes. While Meg Ryan thinks that she may be shedding her romantic-comedy skin for something a bit more roughly, what actually is demonstrated is that Ryan is willing to do any feel-good project. There was nothing gritty or real about this film, and in fact, should be labeled as a fantasy story. With the fading accent that Ryan produces only brings smiles to most faces, the fact that nothing truly bad happens on her road to achieving greatness in a male dominated world is pathetic. The writer of this film, same writer as Save the Last Dance, doesn't give any honest response to Ryan on her journey to the top. The fighter never looses a fight and Ryan is never stopped from being the best, she continually has one good thing happen to her time after time. To me, this builds for a true-Hollywood story that promises never to change or to bring anything tempting to the screen.

I honestly could picture this film as a very gritty portrait of a woman trying to compete in a man's world, but instead what was actually shown to me was this laminated piece of fake history that was promoted as the story of Jackie Kallen's life. There was no dark seedy underbelly to this story, except for when Ryan moseys her way into the ghetto. In quite possibly one of the most racist scenes of the film, Ryan clichés her way into the world of this fighter that is black therefore from the streets. I know that they were trying to build the background to where this unstoppable boxer could come from, but to me it has all been done before and better. I thought that the filmmakers even glossed over the ghetto to bring us into this dramatic light. It was not a believable story, and ultimately that is what hurt this picture.

Outside of this laminated world created, there were just so many loose ends that were not even attempted to be closed by anyone in the film. Tim Daly's character was the most simplistic character I have ever seen in a film causing the mere minutes he was in this film to be some of the most catastrophic and confusing ever. Was he in love with Jackie? Did he still hate her at the end? What was he doing most of the time? Then there was actor/director Charles S. Dutton who played double duty in this film and gave us nothing new with his character. Cliché after cliché, Dutton played the exact same boxing coach that has been done time and time again. Does every boxing coach need to be gruff and large? Apparently, when you are in Hollywood, the answer is "yes". The only person that gave some decent effort in this film was Omar Epps, whose voice was completely covered by Ryan's lacking appeal. You basically had to look at Epps during this entire film because Ryan's performance gave you splitting headaches. This than caused several problems throughout the film, especially the ending. What happened at the end? I can't even count on one hand the number of questions that I had and why, oh dear me why, Hollywood created this glossed ending that resembled nothing of real life, but was destined to give the audience something to tear up about. GET OVER YOURSELF HOLLYWOOD. If you want to make a good movie, you must show realism, not everyone clapping at the end. How many times in real life does this happen? Either way, it was despicable and nothing sort of general.

Overall, this film was a waste of time. If you have seen one sporting film, you have seen Against the Ropes. If you have seen two sporting film, then I am sorry for you. Sport genres are my least favorite and this is yet another glowing example of why. Cheap characters coupled by a story that seemed more like fairyland instead of reality brought this movie down quite a distance in my book. What is even more appalling is the fact that Jackie Kallen looks nothing like Meg Ryan. Apparently, the studios needed someone that would attract people to the film because the STORY ITSELF cannot carry on its own, so Ryan was called in to change her image and bring out the worst of the story. I continually kept a keen eye on this movie just to see if Tom Hanks would make an appearance as her dad, possibly another boxer or just some random moment to revitalize the Ryan/Hanks appeal, but alas, it never occurred. It would have helped the film in the long run, but instead we found cliché after cliché was the stronger approach. I am not suggesting this film at all unless you are a die-hard Meg Ryan fan, and even then I think you will be disappointed.

Grade: ** out of *****

Average customer rating:

An interesting AND Exciting Movie, no matter what the negatives say!!!
Love her wardrobe but not the film.
An entertaining view of Meg Ryan's new image
would've made a decent TV "Movie of the Week"...
Was Tom Hanks in this movie?

Against the Ropes (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Sean Bell , Joseph Cortese , Timothy Daly , Reg Dreger , and Jared Durand
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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