House of pain
>> Undisputed is a punch-drunk boxing
movie set behind bars

by JASON BOGDANERIS

Boxing and prison. Two subjects that have been done to death in film. Would combining these hackneyed genres create a new kind of super-bomb? Or would they somehow cancel each other out and produce a cinematic gem? In the case of Undisputed, the results are as predictable as Don King’s hairdo.

In this corner is the challenger (Wesley Snipes), who’s now serving a life sentence but was once a ranked contender. In his decade behind bars, he’s become the unofficial Big House champ. Our empathy for this stoic bad-ass is mostly built around the unlikeability of those around him. His first opponent, for example, is a hulking white supremacist who sports a swastika tattoo for good measure. The role is handled well enough by Snipes, who’s versatile enough to play lawyers and gangsters with equal competence if not brilliance.

In the other corner is the Champ. Stripped of his title and his dignity, he’s on a mission to prove he’s king of the ring on both sides of the iron bars. Played with chilling efficiency by Ving Rhames, it’s obvious his character has been inspired by a real life pugilist jailbird. From the circumstances of his date rape conviction and hair-trigger temper, right down to the towel poncho robe he wears, this guy is pure Tyson.

After a cafeteria confrontation, the two men are on a collision course for macho supremacy. The rest of the film is a prelude to the big fight and an opportunity to paint a portrait of Good vs. Evil in the broadest strokes imaginable. We learn pretty much all we need to know about each of them within the first few minutes. While one is constantly flying off the handle and lashing out like a cornered bull, the other deals with confinement by building toothpick pagodas with Buddha-like serenity.
But at least the two main combatants are plausible. The rest of the cast of characters run the gamut from bad to worse. Peter Falk chews up the scenery as an ageing Jewish gangster who says “champeen” a lot and is promoting the illegal fight as a last hurrah. His dialogue is an encyclopedia of clichés peppered with expletives and reminiscences about the old days. This being a prison flick, the narrative is peopled by the usual assortment of stock types. There’s the smarmy, corrupt warden, the sadistic guard and the leaders of various gang factions all of whom can’t stand the Champ by the time the bout rolls around.

As for the ring scenes, they have more in common with a video game than the fight game. Director Walter Hill (48 Hours, The Warriors) tries to breathe new life into the stereotypes with some stylish gimmicks, with mixed results. Introducing each new character with a freeze-frame summary of his rap sheet is interesting if a bit overused, but the monochrome video flashbacks get old in a hurry. Like so many of its cinematic ring predecessors, Undisputed is more chump than champ and doesn’t add any lustre to the genre. :

Undisputed opens Friday, Sept. 13

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