'Undisputed' packs plenty of punch

Testosterone-fueled brutality has long been a calling card of filmmaker Walter Hill. Violent rumbles, small and large, have been integral to the success of his action movies, including the 48 Hrs. flicks, 1984's imaginatively photographed Streets of Fire and 1979's then-controversial gang drama The Warriors.

Undisputed, which references Hill's big-screen debut of 27 years ago, Hard Times, feels like one long, unrelenting brawl. It's a bona-fide guilty pleasure, aimed squarely at male audiences. The story is compelling enough, but a viewer might feel a little uncomfortable about being invigorated by the spectacle of so much fist-on-face punching, complete with bone-crunching sound effects.

The cartoonish qualities of the screenplay, penned by Hill and David Giler (Alien 3) are offset somewhat by the real-world events that inspired the plot's set-up. George "Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames of the Mission Impossible movies and Pulp Fiction), like Mike Tyson without the high voice, is a boxing champion convicted of rape.

He is sent to Sweetwater, a maximum-security prison in the Mojave desert that's home to more than 700 violent felons.

Chambers, the baddest of the bad, with a massive "Iceman" tattoo on his back and a gargantuan chip on his shoulder, is determined to be left alone in prison, and to stomp anyone threatening that plan.

Mendy Ripstein (Peter Falk) is an elderly mob type with other ideas for the new kid on the cell block. The lifelong boxing enthusiast arranges to get the Iceman in the ring with the prison's own Monroe Hutchens (Wesley Snipes), a former boxer with 67 prison-match victories to his credit.

The stoic Hutchens, who crafts miniature objects (such as a replicas of the Brooklyn Bridge) from toothpicks, prepares carefully for the showdown. The Iceman puts in a little work, too, never conceding the possibility of a loss. The extended match, the heart of Undisputed, is as thrilling as it ought to be, with the prisoners' emotions raised to a fever pitch and the guest "observers" from Las Vegas using cell phones to stay in touch with bookies around the country.

Michael Rooker as a guard, Fisher Stevens as a weasel-like friend of Hutchens, Jon Seda as Ripstein's mafia-paid assistant and Wes Studi as the Iceman's cellmate make strong impressions in supporting roles. And Ed Lover, as a ringside announcer with a sense of humor, steals the movie every time he shows up.

"If I'd known I had to go to jail to see a fight like this, I'd have committed a crime a long time ago," he tells the crowd.

Movie review

Undisputed

Grade: B

Director: Walter Hill

Cast: Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames, Peter Falk, Michael Rooker, Jon Seda, Wes Studi, Fisher Stevens

Screenplay: David Giler, Walter Hill

Rating: R; boxing-ring violence, profanity, mature themes, brief nudity

Running time: 90 minutes

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