Hey folks, Harry here... I want to see this film for no other reason than to watch Ving Rhames knock the living shit out of Wesley Snipes... I'm talking about just total destruction. You couldn't pay me to put a pinkie in a ring that had Ving Rhames in it. He's got that -- furious anger thing on that brow of his. And with Walter Hill directing him... I have faith. Didn't like WILD BILL, but I'm one of the folks out there that is quite fond of LAST MAN STANDING - no matter what its detractors say... to each their own, here's Massawyrm...
Hola all. In this corner, wearing the white robe with the purple trim, 6’2 tall and weighing in at 220 lbs with a reach of as far as the nearest pack of smokes, the undisputed reviewer of all things indie, Massawyrm. And in this corner, wearing the Miramax logo, weighing in at just under 96 minutes with a reach of as many theatres it can get into, this years prison boxing film, ‘Undisputed’.
Okay, so here’s a film that’s pretty much slipped under the radar so far. If any of you out there have heard of this yet, then you’re that much ahead of most of the critics I attended the screening with this morning. Nobody seemed to know what the hell this movie was about. And, well, that’s essentially Miramax’s fault. When critics haven’t heard of a film less than a week before it’s release, and it sports a couple big names and several recognizable smaller ones, it would seem like there is something is terribly, terribly wrong. But there isn’t. Oh, this film is by no means perfect, it has a couple glaring flaws, but all in all, its a good, fun film. And it could do some decent business…that is if Miramax bothered to promote the thing at all. But they haven’t, and this movie is likely to come and go quicker than a man in a brothel on his lunch hour.
Undisputed posits one of the greatest ‘what-ifs’ in recent movie history. It asks simply “What if when Mike Tyson went to prison for rape he had to confront the undisputed champion of the prison boxing circuit?” I have to admit I often wondered myself, whenever when I saw a story about Tyson’s tribulations, as to what kind of boxing he was doing in prison. If he was allowed to spar and such; if anyone called him out to prove he was as bad as the press had made him out to be. So when I heard that the Mike Tyson character, James ‘Iceman’ Chambers, was to be played by one of my all time favorites Ving Rhames, I knew my ass would be in the seat. But then I heard that his opponent was none other than Wesley Snipes, and I paused. Ever so briefly, but I paused. You see, I like Wesley, but he’s had a rocky history lately. Sure he did Blade and Blade II, but try and think of something else he’s done in the past few years that really stood out, or at the very least, didn’t suck so hard that it moved your car closer to the theatre when it played. And just imagine a Wesley Snipes film that DOESN”T get any media attention. You thinking what I’m thinking? Yep, I thought so. But this doesn’t suck like that, honest.
And to put the icing on the cake, its directed by Walter ‘The Warriors” Hill. That’s right, the director of The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, 48 Hours, Crossroads (the good one with Ralph Macchio and Steve Vai) and Red Heat. Sure his career’s been pretty dodgy lately as well, what with Wild Bill, Last Man Standing (coughcoughWelcomeToJerichocough) and a turn as one of the directors on the cluster fuck that was Supernova. But he’s still Walter Fucking Hill.
And how about some sprinkles on top of that Icing? Try these on for size. Peter Falk as an ancient Mobster, Fisher Stevens as the sickly arsonist manager of Snipes, Michael Rooker as the head prison Guard, Michael Bailey Smith (Ben Grimm in the lost Fantastic Four film as well as thug and henchmen gigs all over the map) as an angry skinhead, Jon Seda (Homicide (TV), Twelve Monkeys, Gladiator (the Cuba Gooding Jr. One) but most notably Dino Ortolani in the very first and arguably one of the best episodes of HBO’s OZ ever) as Peter Falks right hand man, and most noticeable of all, the man who taught us all the Ed Lover Dance, Ed Lover himself as the prison ring announcer. Now, if that list doesn’t get you to want to see this film then you probably shouldn’t see it. This movie is a feast of fun for genre lovers and will probably fall flat for those who are looking for something a little meatier.
First let’s talk about what’s right with this movie. Conceptually its great, its got that whole ‘The Longest Yard’ vibe going on and is playing with a great idea: Is the Undisputed heavyweight champion of the world really that undisputed? Can some convicted murderer kick his ass or not? The tension involved with that question is fantastic.
Ving Rhames turns in another great performance as the fallen boxer trying to maintain what respect he can as his entire world begins to crumble away. What I love about this character is that you never really know whether he raped the girl or not. He certainly doesn’t believe that he did it. He knows that she wanted it. He honestly thought she enjoyed it. And she was, after all, some Vegas showgirl who hopped on a plane with him, flew out of town to a party and went into a bedroom with him alone. He really thinks he’s being fucked over. And he’s pissed. He’s the Champ for Fucks sake. Rhames is simply an amazing actor, a true chameleon of the art. As long as he’s given a solid character (as opposed to playing beck and call boy to Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible movies aka The Tom Cruise Show parts 1 and 2), he tends to outperform everyone else onscreen with him. Here he doesn’t betray for a moment his charisma or his natural likeability. He is 100% hardcore badass, the kind of guy that pulled himself up out of the ghetto by his own bootstraps and found himself on top of the world. Of course, he accomplished all that with his fists and he knows that. It’s a pitch perfect portrayal of a fascinating character.
And of course there’s the supporting cast, each actor giving just enough oomph to lend a great atmosphere and give Sweetwater Maximum Security Penitentiary it’s own personality. Michael Rooker really stands out here, despite his limited screen time, delivering some of the most satisfying lines and moments in the film. At one point all he does is smirk and it makes the whole scene. Peter Falk in turn delivers another cool aging mobster performance and really plays the senility of the character to the hilt. And Ed Lover, my god man, where have you been? Ed lover is great in the precious few moments he’s given as the ring announcer. Really funny stuff from a guy whose day we all thought had passed.
So what’s wrong with Undisputed? Well, first off, there is not a single moment of this film that is bad. Let’s get that straight right off the bat. This isn’t a bad film in the slightest. It’s just not nearly as good as it could have been and won’t prove to be entirely memorable. Why? Well, this is a genre film encompassing two of my favorite genres: Prison films and Boxing films. Now, as these are both specific genres, they come equipped with specific genre rules that you have to play by in order for them to work properly. Unless you’re making a film that transcends the genre (which Undisputed is clearly not trying to do) then you must follow these rules to the letter. When you deviate from the structure you end up losing your audience.
Rule number one of Prison films is that you HAVE to show exactly how tough and unpleasant the prison is. The guards don’t have to be evil fucks, but it helps. Beatings, rape, the fear of a shiv in the back while taking a shower, the terrible food, the rigid schedule, the tedious boredom, the sheer madness from the loss of freedom. Some or all of these elements have to be present to really give us a feeling of loss for the character. We, as the audience, really need to experience firsthand everything that this new life entails. But in Undisputed, we don’t. It’s as if Walter Hill thought ‘Hey, they’ve seen all that before. They’ll understand that all this stuff is going on and we don’t have to bother to show it.’ Well, uh, no Walter. You do have to show it. We NEED it. That’s the whole point to seeing a prison film. We have to see at least a little bit of that human degradation, if not heaping gobs of it. That’s what makes a show like OZ work. Never for one moment do you forget how unpleasant it is to be locked up. The writers and producers never say, ‘You know, we’ve shown enough of this, lets just tell some light stories.’ No, the show is brutal and unflinching in its portrayal of men cast into a windowless Sodom. Unfortunately there’s just none of that here to chew on. Really. This movie could have easily had its premise changed to the world heavyweight champion being drafted into the Army and having to face the Army’s undisputed champion and the story wouldn’t have changed much.
Rule number one of a sports film is that we absolutely, positively have to hate the opponent of our hero or we have to love our hero so much that we want desperately to see him win at all costs. It just has to be that way. If we don’t hate the opposition or love the hero then we really don’t have anything invested in the climatic confrontation to fully involve us. And that’s the real problem here. Walter Hill simply loves both of his competitors way too much. We’re not allowed to hate either of them. They’re both extremely human and we understand them too much to dislike either one. But at the same time, neither one is particularly lovable. They’re both bad men. Rhames’s Iceman is so dead set on being the big dog that he doesn’t mind picking fights with other prisoners to prove it. And Snipes’s Monroe Hutchen is far too cold and emotionless to really care about one way or another, and we spend too little time with him to get to know him any better, so we’re not able to peer under that exterior and see what is lying underneath all that cool. But everyone else loves him, so I guess that means we’re supposed to love him too, right?
I remember going to a special advance screening of Gladiator back in ’92 (again, the Cuba Gooding Jr. one.) While the film is one of those that many have forgotten and abandoned to remain unrented on video store shelves, there was something about that screening and that movie that always stuck with me. You see, it was the first time in my life that I attended a film in which the audience got utterly unruly. People were jumping out of their seats and cheering. Half of the audience was on their feet for final bout. These people were cheering for the film like they were ringside at one of the greatest matches of all time. And for all intents and purposes, they were. The movie had roped them in, brought them into its world and sold them a visceral display of violence that for them was 100% real. And this display was infectious. For the first time in my life, I was on my feet in a theatre cheering for a fight whose fate had been decided long before it was set to film. But that’s what a good movie does. It makes you forget every other shred of reality while it plays you and involves you in it. In Gladiator, you really want to see the hero triumph and that’s exactly what they give you.
But in undisputed, you really don’t have a favorite going into the fight. It’s more like watching your two favorite teams or competitors going at it. You really don’t care who wins, because either way, you win as a fan. Sure, it still is a fun match to watch, but you really don’t get excited about it. The match ups that are the best are those that your absolute favorite competitors go up against those that you revile the most. You scream when your team is bested, you scream when they overcome. You may even do a little dance. Undisputed won’t make you dance. It won’t even make you cheer. And that’s it’s one glaring flaw that makes this film less than what it could have been. You simply don’t care.
Another minor flaw to this film is the music selection. Now, while I’m a fan of the use of Rap in certain films, and I see its place here in both mood and marketing, it just seems too overdone and slightly out of place. It’s out of place in the way that I felt the electronica in Vanilla Sky was, where it seems like it fits but it just doesn’t. It’s like they hammered a square peg into a round hole because that’s what they thought people would want to hear. And it detracts ever so slightly from the film.
My only other complaint with the film stems from a question. When did Wesley Snipes attend the Clint Eastwood School of Anti-hero acting? You know, the school that teaches you that if you squint and grumble out your lines in a gravel toned voice that sounds like you just power smoked a dozen filterless cigarettes that you will be considered cool. In contrast to Ving Rhames amazing performance, Wesley Snipes gives a workable but pretty much Snipes-by-numbers rendition of a caged boxer. He even has an Asian flare to him (What? Wesley Snipes playing a man with a zen-like calm who explodes into lapses of controlled violence and ultimately adorns himself or his abode with some piece of Asian culture? No. Get the fuck out.) He, like the rest of this film, is by no means bad. This film is heads and shoulders above some of his previous recent ventures like the Art of War, U.S. Marshals and All in all this is a good, fun film with some great character work, but could have been better. I’d recommend this to anyone who’s a fan of any of the actors, particularly to Ving Rhames fans who’ve been hungry for him to prove once again that he is, pound for pound, one of the finest, most talented actors working today. If you’re a fan of Boxing films or Prison movies, check this one out.
Maybe sometime this week someone at Miramax will realize they have a film opening this weekend and decide to tell someone about it. Otherwise, you’re likely to miss it until it shows up on video.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em. I know I will.
Massawyrm
