Having intensely disliked the last four or five Meg Ryan movies, I looked upon viewing "Against the Ropes" with some trepidation. After all, the movie had received terrible reviews, both with the critics and with the members of the IMDb. While boxing is my favorite spectator sport, I don't like it enough for "Pay for View" or HBO. So I went into the movie knowing nothing of Jackie Kallen or the accuracy of the film. Maybe that's why I enjoyed "Against the Ropes" so much. I could appreciate the work Ryan, Omar Epps, Charles Dutton, Timothy Daly and, especially, Tony Shaloub were putting on the screen. That Dutton directed particularly impressed me. He handles actors and the camera very well, has a very good eye for screen composition and color. Ryan's Midwestern accent is at least as plausible as Kurt Russell's in "Miracle," and "Against the Ropes" is a more entertaining movie. However, the best acting plaudits go to Tony Shaloub as the weaselly fight promoter. Those only familiar with Shaloub's work on "Monk" or "Wings" are going to see a completely different side of him. Shaloub is menacing without the use of violence; that's not as easy to do as some people might think. The ensemble acting here is even better than "Erin Brockovitch," another sanitized story, so I fail to see why that movie was praised and this one panned. Despite the Hollywood touches, this movie is less predictable than either "Brockovitch" or "Twelve Monkeys," which both received much better reviews.
"Against the Ropes" motivated me enough to read Jackie Kallen's biography.She's a hottie like Ryan, no surprise since that was necessary to get any attention at all in a "man's sport". she's also 57 (so much for the childhood scene, dated "1972" in the beginning) and was a successful fight analyst before she became a manager (so much for the secretary bit. She's also Jewish, three of her gentile champions paraded around the ring with trunks emblazoned with the star of David. Now THAT'S the story I would have liked to have seen. Nonetheless, as presented, "Against the Ropes" is worth at least a "7".
"Against the Ropes" motivated me enough to read Jackie Kallen's biography.She's a hottie like Ryan, no surprise since that was necessary to get any attention at all in a "man's sport". she's also 57 (so much for the childhood scene, dated "1972" in the beginning) and was a successful fight analyst before she became a manager (so much for the secretary bit. She's also Jewish, three of her gentile champions paraded around the ring with trunks emblazoned with the star of David. Now THAT'S the story I would have liked to have seen. Nonetheless, as presented, "Against the Ropes" is worth at least a "7".