Against the Ropes

Plot synopsis:
At a young age, Jackie Kallen learns about boxing with her father and uncle in a small gym. Later, she becomes the assistant to a Cleveland boxing promoter. Her boss then begins doing business with Sam LaRocca, a sports manager, during a middleweight championship fight.
LaRocca asks afterward what she thought of the fight. Obviously unimpressed with Jackie's knowledge of boxing, LaRocca offers her the loser's contract for a dollar. She goes to visit the fighter at home, only to find him addicted to drugs.
Enter Luther Shaw, a small-time hood. Kallen watches in horror and fascination as Shaw pummels the former middleweight champ. She offers to manage him professionally. Shaw is at first hesitant, but he eventually signs on with her.
Because of LaRocca's influence, Kallen can't find Shaw a fight anywhere in Ohio, so the two are forced to go on the road until Shaw makes a name for himself. Jackie begins to get swept up in all the attention she gets for being the first female boxing manager. Her attention eventually shifts from Shaw to her own media persona as her fighter's number of wins continues to climb.
Finally realizing that she is not paying enough attention to her only client, Kallen agrees to sell Shaw's contract to LaRocca on the condition that he be given a championship fight. LaRocca agrees, setting Shaw up for a shot at the title before he could be ready. Kallen arrives at the fight and stands in Shaw's corner as he pulls off an upset and wins the championship.

Tags: romantic, entertaining

Review:
Agreeable comedy-drama about boxing world with a likable Meg Ryan as an obstinate promoter.
The movie focuses to Jackie Kallen(Meg Ryan), a Jewish girl from Detroit, a secretary plenty of wide dreams.
After a stake with a famous commissioner(Tony Shalhoub)she becomes a boxing promoter of a young boxer(Omar Epps).Then she hires a retired coach(Charles S.
Dutton) for training the inexperienced boxer.Although is a fictional story is based on true events referred by United States's most noted boxing manager.
The casting is frankly excellent, a sympathetic though selfish Meg Ryan, a two-fisted but sensible Omar Epps, today well known as the doctor in ¨House¨, such as Tony Shaloub by ¨Monk¨series; furthermore Jose Cortese and Tim Daly(son of James Daly and brother of Tyne Daly) as a sports reporter.
The film will like to Meg Ryan fans and boxing buffs but displays nice combats..
Kallen is obviously a change-of-pace role for Meg Ryan who generally plays the innocent ingénue lead in romantic comedies.
Yet, despite the fact that she is a trifle more serious here and even gets to work with an accent (the mark of any 'serious' performer looking to buck up her credentials), the movie itself is so lacking in tension and grit and so determinedly upbeat and optimistic that it really doesn't give the actress a whole lot of opportunity to truly stretch those acting muscles.
Omar Epps fares a bit better, turning in a performance of strength and dignity, though the script lets him down by failing to develop his character to any appreciable extent.
The one fight scene is only moderately well executed and comes way too late in the film for anyone interested in the sport to still be hanging around ringside at that point.
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.
Meg Ryan has given us some pretty good movies in the past, but I can't seem to find any redeeming qualities...
The whole thing needs a remake, with a different cast, as I believe that Jackie Kallen's story is valid to boxing history and should be told...I thought that Tony Shalhoub, the actor who is Jackie's rival (also plays Monk on TV)has turned in a sight better performances than this before...
The story arc is clichéd, (underdog succeeds against all odds, hubris sets in, everything lost, then redemption), and Meg Ryan, who I think is a better actress than some, is badly miscast here.
Meg Ryan pulls a great performance as the underdog of this movie.
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.
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.
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.
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 told the real story of Jackie Kallen, it would have been worth seeing.
Meg Ryan and Tony Shaloub are excellent in this fact-inspired movie..
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.
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.
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).
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"?).
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.
I could appreciate the work Ryan, Omar Epps, Charles Dutton, Timothy Daly and, especially, Tony Shaloub were putting on the screen.
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".
On a positive note, the last boxing scene was well shot.'Against the Ropes' felt very incomplete and it's a waste for the cast and crew who are otherwise known for their good work.
Against The Ropes is an underrated movie about a female boxing manager.
Meg Ryan seemed like the last choice to play this role, but she is good as a woman who is trying to manage a champion fighter.
While it doesn't break any ground in a sport that is seen here in a more glamorized way, the film presents us a woman determined to succeed at being a boxing promoter.
Dutton, an actor himself, makes the best of the material Cheryl Edwards wrote, based on the real Jackie.Jackie Kallen is a woman who knows a lot about boxing.
While boxing drama has been dealt with in much better movies, we won't dwelt on it.Jackie Kallen, is played by Meg Ryan.
Even though they are few and far between, I like boxing movies, and I thought the fight scenes in this movie were pretty good.
Lots of stereotypes in this film, of course, but then that's what most boxing movies are all about.
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?
In fact it's very very good.Jackie Kallen has lived around the boxing ring all her life.
She is still Meg Ryan - that's her curse, she's that good and loved - but she's also Jackie Kallen, and very convincing at it.Omar Epps should have got his name above the title too as he's also very good.
And watch for Tony Shalhoub in a distinctly unsavoury role.Directed by Charles Dutton who also has a part in the movie, it works well and reaches a satisfactory climax, and you really feel it's been worth the ride - for Jackie, for Meg and the other stars and people on the project, and for you..
I thought it made the story a bit boring and would've liked to have seen it concentrate more on Omar Epps and Meg Ryan's relationship and title conquest.
Meg Ryan provides a great performance in this boxing movie that deals more with the people than the boxing.
The flashy dresses of Meg Ryan (apparently reflective of the real female manager) and the changing personality evolve over time.
Nice Meg Ryan boxing film.
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.
Jackie Kallen (Meg Ryan) grew up in the boxing gym.
Gavin Reese (Tim Daly) is a sports TV personality.This is a fictionalization of the real female pioneer, boxing manager Jackie Kallen.
I do like Meg Ryan and Omar Epps' connection.
Omar Epps and Meg Ryan were great in this movie!
Meg Ryan did the best she could in that type of character, and, although it was a change from her usual movies, it deserves a chance.
I am a big fan of Meg Ryan, but I was skeptical about this movie and it turned out to be entertaining.
Against the Ropes is very loosely based on the life of Jackie Cullen, boxing's most successful female promoter ever.Meg Ryan is Jackie, who's struggling as PA to a boxing venue owner, despite her family connections and knowledge of the sport.
When she gains a dud boxer after a wager, Jackie encounters the talented Luther (Omar Epps) and enlists retired trainer Felix (Charles S Dutton, who also directed) to get Luther match-ready.Although Meg Ryan does well enough with Cheryl Edwards' hackneyed script, the real Jackie Cullen seems to be a far more interesting character.
"Against the Ropes" might very well have been based on the life of Jackie Kallen, but I doubt her life was really this clichéd or peopled with such run-of-the-mill characters.Screenwriter Cheryl Edwards shows us nothing we haven't seen countless times before.
I half-expected Dabney Coleman to reprise his role from "9 to 5" (1980).We get the rags-to-riches bit, the angry street kid turned into disciplined fighter, the blow out scene during sparring, the outburst from the trainer and, lest we forget, the slow-hand clap.Surely, Jackie Kallen's real life was much more interesting than this.
I realize writers and filmmakers take liberties with stories, but to come up with such a stale story wastes good talent - Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, Tony Shalhoub and Charles S.
Then again, having a stronger story would've helped immensely, too.Dutton plays Felix, a trainer brought out of retirement, just as every other trainer in every other boxing film, and Kerry Washington's Renee is utterly superfluous as Luther's love interest.
Even Tony Shalhoub, a treat as TV's obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, plays a hackneyed sleazebag.Instead of giving us insight into what is surely a unique life - a female boxing manager struggling and succeeding in a male-dominated sport and world - Edwards lumps one predictable moment atop another, each one terribly conventional.
Couldn't have been better!Another thing I especially liked was so little use of profanity, and you know in the real boxing world it was there, but this movie was classy enough it didn't need to resort to vulgarity to get the points across.Growing up as a  woman in a family owned tire business in the '60's, I could empathize with everything she was going through.I cried at the end with joy, it's the kind of movie you just feel good when you leave.
After seeing Meg Ryan in her last movie I felt this was reason to feel this way.
It's so predictable that one might think that the real Kallen would have been offended by the Lifetime Movie-of-the-Week treatment of her colorful life, but as she was an active executive producer, I guess we can assume she enjoyed Meg Ryan's gravelly-voiced, fiendishly asexual interpretation of herself.
(For the record, the real Kallen was a mother experienced in sports journalism when she became a boxing manager, not the downtrodden spinster secretary as shown in the movie).
The movie is a true story about a woman who is a manager of boxers----is that important for people to know!!!This is not one of Meg Ryan's better roles--she is the only recognizable one in the movie--everyone else appears to be a wannabe!!
stereo typical boxing movie and Meg Ryan uses a bad accent.
I didn't know finding a champion boxer was so easy.Ryan over acts and uses this bad accent like she's talking through her nose.
Charles Dutton, who also directed the film plays a trainer, he is usually very good in supporting roles, in fact he was great in one of my favorite sports films:Rudy, looks embarrassed.
You want to see a movie about a fighter being managed by a woman, see The Main Event with Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal, no, not a very good movie but at least it was more entertaining than this waste of celluloid!!!STAY AWAY!!!
A boxing movie with Meg Ryan..
a boxing movie where Meg Ryan plays a tough and smart promoter.
I usually enjoy Meg Ryan movies, but in this one I felt she was stilted and trying a bit too hard to be her character.
Meg Ryan portrays a boxing manager's secretary.
After a bet, Ryan buys a boxer for one dollar, and later becomes one of the first successful female managers in the history of boxing.
The only worth while thing in this movie is Meg Ryan's performance.
Do not waste 111 minutes of your life watching this movie...Between Meg Ryan's awful accent (still not sure the origin of that one) and the brutal one liners ("Here's some advice from Jackie Kallen - Always run with the big dogs, don't just sit on the porch and bark") this is one of the worst movies i have ever suffered through.
Omar Epps is definitely the highlight of this movie but like his character in the film, he is overshadowed by Meg Ryan's character and bad acting.
I feel bad for the real Jackie Kallen who this movie was supposed to portray.
Not being familiar with the "true" real life story of the main character, I was consistently disappointed to find myself detached from the experience, and realising that I could predict the entire plot from beginning to end, it felt more like a parody of the Rocky movies with a female twist than an engaging tale of a woman trying to succeed in a mans world..
Here she seems totally out of place as the first successful female boxing promoter and the soft lighting and patented Meg head-tilt just don't do justice to the real story.
Meg Ryan stars in a true story about Jackie Kallen, the first female boxing manager who successfully broke the gender barrier of the boxing world.
The real life Jackie Kallen plays a reporter in the movie.
There is no point in a movie about a woman who wants to be a boxing manager.
I love the big glorified ending "Jackie became the best female boxing manager of all time"...
New to DVD this week is Against the Ropes, a boxing film that is yet  another vehicle to re-invent and re-energize Meg Ryan's persona.
This  stab has Meg playing Jackie Kallen, a true-to-life famous boxing  promoter that used her skills and sex appeal to puncture the male  dominated sports arena.
But things can't be that smooth for Ms. Kallen or they wouldn't have  optioned the story for a movie, and obstacles come in the form of  LaRocca's influence on the sport and how he is able to keep Jackie's  fighter to insignificant, under-card fights.
But as the movie  plods along with some unnecessary and almost laughable accents by  Shalhoub and Ryan, we find that we don't care about the characters, can  see things scenes before they unfold and we are reminded that boxing  can sometimes be more of a who you know rather than what you can do  kind of experience.
And it's got Meg Ryan in the lead role.That to me, is part of what took away from the movie.
That's not a dig at her acting, she was fine, but I just always knew I was watching Meg Ryan portray a boxing promoter.
This movie at times seemed less like a biography/boxing movie then a showcase for Meg Ryan's outfits and for her to break out of the romantic comedy role.
To me, this builds for a true-Hollywood story that promises never to change or to bring anything tempting to the screen.I honestly could picture this film as a very gritty portrait of a woman trying to compete in a man's world, but instead what was actually shown to me was this laminated piece of fake history that was promoted as the story of Jackie Kallen's life.
What is even more appalling is the fact that Jackie Kallen looks nothing like Meg Ryan.
This film has reasonably good boxing scenes...certainly better than most.
I recommend watching this movie on mute, because Meg Ryan is nice to look at..
The thing is that there was an intention for making a movie about North America's most famous female boxing promoter (Jackie Kallen).
Meg Ryan is a bona fide movie star and a damn good actress and she would have to be to make a boxing film full of clichés watchable but she does that here.