When heavyweight champion George 'Iceman' Chambers lands in prison, the resident gangster arranges a boxing match with the reigning prison champ.
Director: Walter Hill
Writers: David Giler, Walter Hill
Stars: Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames, Peter Falk.
Storyline
George "Ice Man" Chambers (Rhames) is a top ranked heavyweight boxer. However Chambers has his world turned upside down when he is accused of rape and sent to prison. Upon his arrival he hears talk about Monroe Hutchen (Snipes) who is the top ranked prison boxing champ 10 years running. Immediately there is bad blood with Chambers not wanting to be second to no one which leads to a lunch room fight between the men. Figuring it will be a good way to make money fellow convict Emmanuel 'Mendy' Ripstein (Peter Falk) sets up a prison boxing match between the two men to decide who is the real UNDISPUTED champ. Michael Rooker plays a guard, Fisher Stevens, John Seda, and Master P co star.
User Reviews
Wesley Snipes stars as the boxing champ of Sweetwater Prison whose title and manhood are put at jeopardy when the true heavyweight champion (played by Ving Rhames) lands in the cellblock for the rape of a showgirl (Rose Rollins).
I enjoyed UNDISPUTED for the first thirty minutes or so but after that I became lost. I was looking for deeper character development than I ever got. We get to know Ving Rhames character the most (mainly because he's a replica of Mike Tyson) and he's the antagonist. We get introduced to several supporting characters (Wes Studi, Fisher Stevens, Peter Falk, Michael Rooker, Jon Seda) here and there for whatever reason. However, they're all a prison cliché.
The character we never get to know, oddly, is the hero, played by Wesley Snipes. We can only assume that Snipes is the hero because of his sensitive hobby of making houses out of toothpicks. Other than that, Snipes has only about twenty lines. It's weird. Rhames even though billed second has far more screen time than Snipes.
I can't help but feel that this film lost it in the editing room. Somehow this movie feels like half a movie. Like important parts have been chopped away. I just can't imagine writers Walter Hill and David Giler (ALIEN), or any writers for that matter, writing a script with such a non-dimensional lead character.
While action film veteran Walter Hill (48 HOURS; LAST MAN STANDING) has learned some stylish new tricks to filmmaking, they're not enough to save his latest effort. All in all, two incarcerated boxers go head to head, but it's the movie that gets K.O.'d. (C-)
