Against the Ropes (2004)

Sloppy, sentimental boxing comedy-drama is based on successful female boxing manager Jackie Kallen's tough rise to the top ('loosely inspired' seems a more appropriate term). Meg Ryan plays Kallen with a streetwise edge in her voice and is appropriately cast, but her outlandish wardrobe certainly belies the salary of a glorified secretary, and Tony Shalhoub embarrasses himself as a 'Godfather'-styled kingpin of the boxing mecca (he dresses and talks like John Gotti, but only seems to have one client). Charles Dutton directed, and his own performance as the veteran trainer (yet another cliché) is at least warmly thought out--ironically, it's the best acting here. "Ropes" is a lackluster film, put together and distributed as if nobody involved had a hope in hell for it. The boxing scenes are slapdash, with Ryan walking right across the ring at one point to deliver a last-second pep-talk to Omar Epps, the kind of conspiratorial speech that is older than dirt (why doesn't she just say, "Win one for the Gipper"?). Omar's rise to success is swifter than a bad odor, which is pretty much what this misfire leaves in its wake. *1/2 from ****

Fmovies: This movie couldn't decide what it was. It's not a bioPic. As Kallen, herself, said, "The character is named Jackie Kallen and she sounds like me but they changed so much of the story that it wasn't me... it's just a little confusing to be the actual subject of a movie and yet have it not follow your life enough that you can't recognize yourself." It's not a Rocky story, rising from nothing to champ, because it can't decide who is Rocky - is it Jackie or Luther? It's not Meg Ryan's usual RomCom, although it flirts with the idea in some scenes. And, finally the boxing has no authenticity (the last fight is a joke). The problem with trying to span so many genres it ends up failing in them all. What a waste. I give this film a 4 (poor) out of 10. {BiographyX, RomanceX, Boxing DramaXXX}

What a complete waste of talent... a poorly written, thin story that might have... well... been a contender.

My honest advice is do not watch this unless you have a strong drink in one hand and the other ready to hit your remote's fast-forward button.

Meg Ryan has a terrible time getting into Jackie Kallen's character and struggles to bring any depth to the part. Omar Epps blows her away in the acting department, but that doesn't say much. Charlie Dutton is Charles Dutton, but the script seems to hang them all out to dry.

The only thing that was good was the print I saw had excellent color balance.

Against the Ropes fmovies. I don't follow boxing, but the lady that Meg Ryan portrays is apparently the female ground-breaker as a boxing manager. The movie is set in Cleveland, on a dare she finds a local black man who appears to have potential, she gets a retired trainer to look at her kid, and together they make a winner. Tony Shaloub is the best here, as the ruthless local boxing manager and promoter who gets his cronies to blacklist her and prevent her boxer from fighting in local fights. So she has to take him to places like Buffalo, NY and cities in Florida to win fight that will eventually get him a title fight. A different role for Meg Ryan, she changes her voice and has to play a "hard" woman. In the DVD extras, the real lady boxing manager is interviewed and it is a nice addition to the story that was inspired by her life, but many things have been changed so it is not really a biographical sketch. The movie is better than its IMDb rating would indicate.

This was a huge, huge disappointment. It's a lot like a weak boxer. The story starts strong, but about halfway into things it loses it's legs. They should have thrown in the towel during the final act, because this movie was not holding itself up.

It's bad enough that the story has nothing to do with the real life of Jackie Kallen, these characters have nothing to do with reality at all. Even as a piece of fiction, I couldn't buy what they were doing. The characters black and white, good and evil, and there's nothing complex about them. This movie doesn't try to challenge you to think at all. Tony Shaloub plays a thinly veiled Bob Erim caricature who is always evil. He's never nice to anyone. Omar Epps plays a thinly veiled James Toney, minus Toney's uncontrollable temper, and with a much higher IQ. Epps' character Luther Shaw is just a kid who's had a run of bad luck and needs a chance. He's a hero. Ryan is also someone who just needs a chance. He and Ryan's characters have to learn to trust each other, believe in themselves, and have enough heart to follow their dreams. In this world, good always triumphs over evil and people always get their dreams.

Here's how Kallen describes the movie on her own site:

"The true story of boxing manager Jackie Kallen - dubbed the First Lady of Boxing - a former Detroit TV personality, publicist, and suburban mom, who broke into the predominantly male boxing community and guided the careers of several fighters, including champions James Toney and Thomas Hearns. Kallen later went on to become the commissioner of the International Female Boxers Association."

This movie is an insult to the sport of boxing. When you think about how low boxing has sunk recently, anything that insults boxing has to be absolutely awful. The big fight sequence at the end of the movie has to be one of the worst boxing scenes in the history of the movies. Think of the ridiculous boxing sequences in the later Rocky sequels, and then imagine trying to make them even more absurd. The characters do nothing but take cheap shots and then smack each other with devastating blows squarely on the jaw.

The saddest thing is the real story of Jackie Kallen would have made a great movie. Meg Ryan portrays her as a spinster working as a secretary for a boxing promoter in Cleveland. The real Jackie Callen was married, had a son, and was the publicist for the Kronk gym in Detroit. Callen's first big fighter, James Toney, was from Ann Arbor. The script doesn't even set the story in Michigan where things really happened.

In this world there's no Don King, no mafia, no sleezy gamblers ... it's just not the real world of boxing. There's also no controversial fight between James Toney and David Tiberi. In the real world, so many people felt the scoring of that fight was so wrong that the fight must have been fixed. That decision (for Toney) launched an investigation into boxing by the US Congress.

For her part, Meg Ryan offers no surprises and just plays another blonde who smiles a lot. Really, this is a role that should have been played by Marg Helgenberger of CSI. Ryan is too innocent. Helgenberger would have brought credible toughness and credible sexuality to the role. Charles Dutton is always amazing, and Omar Epps looks like an up and coming action star, but the script isn't up to their talents. Tony Shaloub also does a lot with a poorly written character.

If this movie really had to

I had the pleasure of going to the premiere for Against the Ropes in LA on February 11, 2004. I thought the movie was excellant. I am Charles Dutton's neice, and a very big fan of Omar Epps. The movie was very well written, and directed, and the cast did a fantastic job. Meg Ryan definately played her part, and made it be known that there is no such thing as "a man's sport". I give the movie, it's writers, directors, and it's cast 2 thumbs up. This will definately be a movie that I will purchase on DVD when it comes out.