Undisputed is the kind of flick that could put hair on your chest and a swagger in your stride, assuming you don't actually drown in the testosterone that pours off the screen like the sweat flying from Ving Rhames's bald head.
Ya-Ya Sisterhood this ain't.
A mutant hybrid of a boxing movie, an episode of Oz and a commentary on Mike Tyson's, ahem, legal woes, Undisputed is entertaining enough to carry its (heavy)weight, but it doesn't quite gel as any of the above.
It opens in theatres today.
Former heavyweight boxing prospect Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes) is 10 years into a life sentence for a murder of passion, the only time in life that he's let his control slip.
Onto Monroe's turf - the fictitious Sweetwater Prison in California's Mojave Desert - comes George "Iceman" Chambers (Rhames), the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
He's being sent up for a rape he says he didn't commit, though the thinly veiled representation of Tyson makes his pleas instantly suspect.
With Monroe as the reigning champion in the intra-prison boxing program and Iceman as the champion outside the concrete walls, a clash of egos and fists is a given.
Peter Falk nearly teeters into caricature territory as an aging mobster who wants to pit his prison "champeen" against the real-world "champeen" for a big-money prize fight, the results of which will never be spoken of outside the prison walls.
Rhames is all muscle-y menace as the Iceman, a thuggish lout whose defence against the rape accusations levelled at him is that he's so rich and famous, why would he have to sexually assault a woman?
They flock to his feet, baby.
Snipes, who keeps getting better with age, does the whole Zen-master warrior thing well, and he's strappy enough to be a believable opponent for Rhames's bulging Iceman.
Director Walter Hill has some fun with slick camera angles, superimposed prison blueprints and convict intros that seem to suggest we've just tuned to the Prison Sports Network (PSN?), and there's no debating that Undisputed is simplistically stylish.
But Hill, who seems to gravitate to morally ambiguous films where there's no clear-cut hero or villain, doesn't give us much reason to cheer for either of these men.
Monroe seems the more natural choice as the guy we want to be the last man standing, but Snipes's character needed a little more development to get us on his side.
As it stands, it comes down to the honourable but enigmatic murderer and the brutish but possibly innocent rapist. Who exactly are we rooting for here?
The fight choreography won't make anyone forget Raging Bull, but the visceral pummelling is wincingly fun to watch - though, oddly, nary a drop of blood is shed. Given that the F word is said about 813 times by Falk's character alone, it's not like they could have been angling for a G rating or anything.
What Undisputed does lack in creativity or genuine surprises it makes up for with the performances of Snipes, Rhames and a solid supporting cast featuring Wes Studi, Jon Seda and Michael Rooker.
It wins on points, but most certainly not by a knockout.
(More on Undisputed)
(This film is rated AA)
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