Against the Ropes

Epps is solid but the rest is overacted poorly written and predictable. A great film can come from this story but this sure wasn't it.

Unworthy of a star. Slow boring and predictable from beginning to the end

Loved the movie. Thought meg ry an was great in iy

It was a bland sort of movie where you could see the manager taking the fame over the real talent. It was time wasted that I'll never get back.

The film also suffers from a split personality syndrome: it wants to tell the "real life" story (based on actual events, but heavily fictionalized) of Jackie Kallen (played in the film by Meg Ryan), the first big-time female boxing promoter, but it also wants the rousing ending of a big bout, so it dovetails Jackie's story with that of a fictional pugilist, Luther Shaw (Omar Epps), and, in the process, loses its focus. This is a good watch but don't go with your expectations sky high.

Her accent in this movie drove me crazy, horrible.

So sad. Not the plot. I mean the whole movie in general. Omar Epps is so much better than his acting in this. Meg Ryan was hanging on by a thread. And with this movie the thread should have broken.

Despite the fact that it's loosely based on a true story, there's not a lot of authenticity to "Against the Ropes," a watered-down boxing melodrama filled with sports movie cliches and boring, stock characters. I get that spunky Meg Ryan being cast against type as real-life promoter Jackie Kallen is the big draw here, but the actress is terribly unconvincing in the role. Her persona doesn't have the weight to pull it off, but it's really the screenplay that lets everyone down here.None of these characters are written very well, and the relationship Ryan has with her boxer is especially weak. Omar Epps is just fine in the role, but not once do we believe the bond between him and his manager, and that's essential to the success of the picture. The weakness is further strengthened by the fact that the Ryan character isn't very likable most of the time , especially when it becomes apparent she's only concerned about herself. The first-time direction by Charles S. Dutton is very stiff and mechanical, and it's even more distressing in the boxing scenes. They aren't very exciting, and they should have been the centerpiece of the film. Instead, since the writing is so weak, we don't have much interest invested in these people or their story. Even the championship fight feels anticlimactic, but the whole things ends predictably enough. "Against the Ropes is as routine and by-the-numbers as movies get, a lazy and uninspired drama centered around a story that didn't need to be told.

in my opinion this is a good film, but has a lot of unnecessary subjects, for one Meg Ryan is not rough enough as the boxing promoter, the love interest of Luther is not necessary, this film is about boxing, not love relationships, so the girlfriend is not needed in this Movie. check out my film blog that has more of my film reviews on Movies of the early, mid & late 2000s http://filmflavour.wordpress.com

Meg Ryan is trying herself at something new but she fails to truly convince as a boxing coach in this otherwise pretty entertaining film.