FILM FRENZY

Ving Rhames and Luiii in Uppercut (Photos: Lionsgate)

By Matt Brunson

UPPERCUT
★½ (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Torsten Ruether
STARS Ving Rhames, Luiii

With its story about a scrappy young female boxer and her relationship with a wizened and seasoned coach, it’s inevitable that many will be comparing Uppercut to Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby. Unfortunately, the new picture isn’t worth a plugged nickel, let alone a million bucks.

Writer-director Torsten Ruether elected to remake his 2021 German film Leberhaken as the English-language Uppercut, retaining lead actress Luiii but adding Ving Rhames as her co-star. Much of the movie takes place “eight years earlier,” as the rambunctious Toni (Luiii) breaks into a gym owned by a former boxer named Elliot (Rhames). While he initially suspects her of being a crackhead there to steal his gear, he soon learns that she’s actually an aspiring boxer who wants him to train her. They spend the next few hours mainly talking but also engaging in a bit of physical activity.

These sequences are interspersed with more modern segments in which Toni, now a fabulously successful boxing manager, paces impatiently backstage while her chosen fighter, Payne Harris (Tony-nominated actor-playwright Jordan E. Cooper), is trying to win a title and her baby daughter is home sick. Also thrown into the mix are a handful of scenes that show how Toni and Payne first met (angrily, it turns out).

Rhames does much more for this picture than this picture does for him, as he makes the flashback scenes somewhat watchable. He’s not aided by Luiii, who delivers a self-conscious performance that ultimately isn’t strong enough to shoulder the diverse demands of her character. Also making her task harder is the fact that Toni is so poorly defined in the first place. She initially seems to be a street waif until a line of dialogue reveals that she’s actually a child of privilege. Unlike Elliot, who has very specific and very emotional reasons for turning to boxing in his youth, her reasons are vague and not very compelling. It’s also hard to gauge her intelligence — the most she gets from a teachable moment from Elliot that incorporates music into the boxing regimen is that the names Buddy (as in Buddy Guy) and Muddy (as in Muddy Waters) rhyme.

If Rhames’ presence at least adds some spark to the flashback sequences, the modern scenes without his character are simply painful. With no discussion of what transpired in the eight years that passed between then and now, it’s just unbelievable that this immature ragamuffin would grow to become a powerful and ruthless manager in less than a decade’s time. There’s little explanation as to her quirks (such as refusing to sit ringside during her fighters’ various bouts), and the boxing bits featuring Payne are so badly edited and integrated that they generate apathy rather than excitement.

The heavy-handedness of much of the dialogue is a crucial flaw, but so are select scenes that manage to draw involuntary chuckles. In one sequence, Elliot tests Toni’s reflexes by softly throwing tennis balls at her. After a clumsy edit, Toni is shown on her knees with a nasty gash above her eye and blood dripping down her face.

Wait, when did Elliot switch to hurling bowling balls?

(Uppercut will be available to stream on Amazon Prime beginning November 1.)