*Against the Ropes* is a particularly frustrating specimen of early-2000s cinematic biopic failure, a film that manages to be both insultingly formulaic and profoundly wasteful of its promising subject matter. The picture is guilty of the cardinal sin of the genre: where it should have been ‘based’ on the remarkable life of pioneering boxing manager Jackie Kallen, it settles for being merely ‘inspired by’, a euphemi…







