Against the Ropes (2004)

Director:

Charles S. Dutton

Writers (WGA):

Jackie Kallen (life)
Cheryl Edwards (written by)

Release Date:

20 February 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

She gave the boxing world the one-two punch they never saw coming.

Plot:

A fictional story inspired by North America's most famous female boxing promoter, Jackie Kallen. Her struggle to survive and succeed in a male dominated sport.

Plot Keywords:

Boxing | Boxing Manager | Male Female Relationship | Jumprope | Drugs

Cast

Meg Ryan	...	Jackie Kallen
Omar Epps	...	Luther Shaw
Charles S. Dutton	...	Felix Reynolds
Tony Shalhoub	...	Sam LaRocca
Tim Daly	...	Gavin Reese
Joseph Cortese	...	Irving Abel (as Joe Cortese)
Kerry Washington	...	Renee
Sean Bell	...	Ray Kallen
Dean McDermott	...	Pete Kallen
Skye McCole Bartusiak	...	Little Jackie
Juan Carlos Hernández	...	Pedro Hernandez (as Juan Hernandez)
Holt McCallany	...	Doug Doherty
Tory Kittles	...	Devon Green
Gene Mack	...	Kevin Keyes
Beau Starr	...	Corcoran

Also Known As:

Die Promoterin (Germany)
The Jackie Kallen Story (USA) (working title)
The Promoter (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for crude language, violence, brief sensuality and some drug material.

Runtime:

USA:111 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39517) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Company:

Cort/Madden Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: When Luther is having dinner with Jackie, he picks up his napkin twice.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fear of Clowns (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

What are You Doin' with Her?

An Erin Brockovich Boxing Movie

Meg Ryan plays a Jewish woman from Detroit who strives to become a successful boxing manager despite facing many obstacles, including an unscrupulous boxing promoter, played by Tony Shalhoub. Against the Ropes looks at the relationship between Kallen and her first professional boxer, played by Omar Epps.

Against the Ropes is your typical Lifetime movie of the week feature that somehow made it to theaters. It had nice intentions but the film is not very good or strong. The story is very uninspired and it reminded me of Erin Brockovich. Against the Ropes tried too hard to be like Erin Brockovich and other boxing films without really being its own film. Also, most of the film is pretty dull and there are no real good performances. Meg Ryan is okay as Jackie Kallen. She was a little weak in the dramatic scenes and sometimes her emotions felt really fake. Her outfits were really trashy and this took away from her already less than stellar performance.

Meg Ryan is paired up with Omar Epps and he gives a decent performance. However, his chemistry with Meg is really weak. This hurts the film a lot since the whole movie was basically their relationship. Tony Shalhoub gives an okay performance but there really wasn't a lot for his character to do. Charles S. Dutton gives an okay performance as Felix. Again, there really wasn't much for his character to do. Dutton also directs the film and he does an okay job. He could have developed the characters a little more and he could have done a better job at capturing the relationship between Jackie and Luther. The film is very predictable and very simple. The boxing scenes are good but they pale in comparison to other boxing films like Rocky. In the end, this really is a weak film that's not worth watching. Rating 4/10