This lethargic, pseudo-feminist biopic is barely a notch above a bad TV movie, with one-dimensional characters, cliché-ridden dialogue and fight scenes that are badly choreographed and edited.
Comment
02/20/04
Against the Ropes (2003)
13
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:128
Fresh:16
Rotten:112
Average Rating:4.2/10
Consensus: A bland, dumbed-down package of sports cliches.
Reviews for Against the Ropes
As a boxing movie, Against the Ropes is perfunctory... As a biopic, it's likewise uninspired stuff.
02/20/04
A cliché-ridden, condescending and ham-handed film that clumsily fails to bring to life what should be an interesting story.
02/20/04
What either of the main characters think, or feel, about anything not directly related to their career ambitions remains wholly unexplored.
02/20/04
It is February, and this one is at least watchable. So go ahead and pick it up. Just don't expect it to be there when you get home.
02/20/04
In this specific role, Ryan does not have the cohones to do the physical strut that the real Kallen used to succeed.
02/20/04
Feels more like a TV movie for the Women's Television Network than a feature film.
02/20/04
It's hard to buy this minor melding of Rocky and Erin Brockovich as anything but a punched-up star vehicle for an actress in a slump.
02/20/04
Wobbles like a punch-drunk fighter.
02/20/04
Top CriticIt offers lackluster fantasy propped up by cliches. Kallen's story deserves better.
02/20/04
Inept in nearly every phase of filmmaking, the film's pace is lumbering, there's a shocking lack of authenticity and its messages are mixed at best.
02/20/04
Unlike Rocky and other cornball boxing movies, this one fails to land the knockout blow and winds up dispensing love taps in a hardboiled business.
02/20/04
In the class of American boxing movies, it's barely a welterweight.
02/20/04
Meanders until it gets to the final third of its running time, and then it catches fire.
02/20/04
Top CriticRyan, fitted out with...Brokovich-provocative wardrobe gives an interesting performance, but one that constantly demands analysis
02/20/04
Never incites enough of a rooting interest to capitalize on its inherent feel-good triumph-of-the-underdog arc.
02/20/04
Written by Cheryl Edwards, Kallen's story is pumped with artificial sweeteners, hokey inevitabilities, and denaturing oversimplifications.
02/20/04
Ryan approaches a larger-than-life character... and helps reduce her to a plucky heroine straight out of a made-for-Lifetime movie.
02/20/04
Let's talk turkey. There's nothing to be thankful about when it comes to Against the Ropes ... which passed its sell-by date even before the cameras started rolling.
02/20/04
The movie version of Jackie Kallen is Faust meets Erin Brockovich in a Lifetime movie coproduced by ESPN. If it sounds like a hodgepodge, that's because it is.
02/20/04
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