What if you had a chance to do what
you love after being locked behind bars? In
Undisputed, every six months a boxing match between two
prisoners occurs. The referee is a prisoner, the announcer
is a prisoner, the audience is full of prisoners, and the
rink is inside of the prison in which most of them live. The
topic discussed is an amazing way to combine reality with a
story to create a wonderful screenplay. Sure, there probably
aren’t boxing matches that go on in the middle of a jail all
the way out in the
Mojave
Desert.
But, it’s a great idea; prisoners are strong and burly
fighters; why not stick a pair of gloves on them and let
them take out all of their anger usually kept in a 10 x 10
cell? The film is a realistic approach at making a
farfetched idea come to life onscreen.
Monroe Hutchen has life in prison
and he makes the best of it when fight night comes around.
There is only one champ in prison, and he has been it for
ten years. He’s one of the best undiscovered boxers out
there. Any competitor, any size; he’ll take them on. Until
one day, when George “The Iceman” Chambers comes to the
prison for conviction of rape. The Iceman is the heavyweight
champion of the world outside of the bars. His sentence is 5
– 8 years, though his agent hopes that he’s out on parole
for good behavior within two in fear of his career in boxing
getting destroyed. You can guess what happens next, right?
The two champs converge with anger and the other men locked
away want to see them fight. Monroe is apprehensive, but
when Peter Falk’s character offers him a good heaping of
money to be used to support family members in return for the
fight; he has no choice but to say yes or his title will be
questioned…The Iceman’s ego is a lot bigger than Hutchen’s,
but members of the film’s audience never know who will win
for sure until they dance it out on the mat. Some people
said that this movie was extremely predictable, but that was
never an issue for me.
Every prisoner has a story. Every
prisoner has a conviction. In Undisputed when
you meet a character, at the bottom right corner of the
screen their conviction and date convicted flashes up,
followed by a short flashback or sound effect of the crime
being committed. This really helped me to enjoy the film
because I knew what all of the characters were in jail for;
and was able to make an opinion on them For example, I would
rather be stuck with the guy convicted of car-jacking rather
than the Iceman whom was in for rape. There are a lot of
choices you make upon viewing this picture unfold, including
who you root for to win the boxing match. I took it as an
obvious decision and chose to root for the underdog. But,
this decision if the Iceman forms a good impression on you,
his crime is very controversial and up in the air (he also
pleads not guilty to it). In some parts you have to way
morals against values, pros against cons; it was surprising
that this movie made me think so much, I thought it would be
similar to Ali, just sitting there on the table
without any real thought put into it.
Undisputed is a
triumphant masterpiece that captures the many stereotypes of
different prisoners extremely well. Two sold performances
from Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames secured the great
impression that the movie held on me. It also was
interesting to see the Peter Falk, who wasn’t very good,
though it was bizarre, but cool to see him say the “F” word
forty times in forty seconds. The movie is well worthy of a
rental if it’s not far enough up your alley to make a trip
to the theater. I wouldn’t normally go and see it for
leisurely purposes, but I took the chance and liked it.
Undisputed is the heavyweight champion of all
boxing movies made in the last five years.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews