Against the Ropes Critic Reviews

Against the Ropes meanders until it gets to the final third of its running time, and then it catches fire.Read the full review

It succeeds in many of the ways a sports movie should, and, by employing a slightly different viewpoint for most of the production, manages a sense of freshness.Read the full review

Some of the performances show flashes of idiosyncrasy and flair that are nearly snuffed out by the pedestrian script.Read the full review

Though the movie is more mediocre than abysmal, Ryan's recently banged-up filmography (remember In the Cut) could use what every fighter needs at ringside: a good cut man to stop the bleeding.Read the full review

By the end, everything that was initially serious about the film becomes silly and everything appealing about it turns sour.Read the full review

The movie is only sporadically interesting.Read the full review

Think of Against the Ropes as a "Rocky" story -- if, that is, the vintage is somewhere between "Rocky IV" and "V," and the action centered around the Burgess Meredith character as played by Meg Ryan wearing "Barbarella" outfits.Read the full review

Right up to the ludicrous finale and an even more improbable denouement, everything rings Hollywood-false. More galling still, the filmmakers' inventions take the zing out of the facts.Read the full review

If they had to make things up, couldn't they have made up something smarter?Read the full review