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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: While Ryan's performance has the proper blend of confidence and cleavage, the movie succeeds only in producing more fight flick cliches than a Rocky movie marathon. Read more
Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Still Oscar-less, Ryan obviously sees Jackie as her blue-collar scrapper in the Brockovich-Norma Rae mold. What she delivers is very different -- an unwittingly patronizing Great Blond Hope. Read more
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A cliche-ridden, condescending and ham-handed film that clumsily fails to bring to life what should be an interesting story. Read more
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Pure fairy tale and flimflam, as phony as a fixed fight. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Ultimately, you've seen it before, and there's no reason to see it again. Let's hope the real Jackie Kallen's life is more inspiring than this. Read more
Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Every scene in this movie plays like a scene from another boxing movie. Read more
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ryan is clearly enjoying herself. She adroitly maneuvers her trademark cuteness into a kind of oblivious brashness -- a curious mix of brassy and brave. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Written by Cheryl Edwards, Kallen's story is pumped with artificial sweeteners, hokey inevitabilities, and denaturing oversimplifications. Read more
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A workmanlike production that's simply too predictable and too preposterous to hold our interest. Read more
Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It's hard to buy this minor melding of Rocky and Erin Brockovich as anything but a punched-up star vehicle for an actress in a slump. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: In the class of American boxing movies, it's barely a welterweight. Read more
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly: What [Ryan] appears to be doing is an impression of Johnny Depp doing an impression of Keith Richards doing an impression of Liz Taylor. Read more
Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Far from a championship movie, but it's fun while it lasts. Read more
Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly: No amount of movie-star twinkle could lighten screenwriter Cheryl Edwards' bizarre character arc. Read more
John Anderson, Newsday: More business as usual, despite the feminist aspects of Kallen's story. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Gives Meg Ryan lots to do -- if, by lots, you mean wear a different trashy outfit in every scene, talk tough and follow a character arc which requires only that she learn a trite lesson. Read more
Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: As a boxing movie, Against the Ropes is perfunctory... As a biopic, it's likewise uninspired stuff. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Given a real character to play, and one within her range, Ryan delivers a real performance, and a really likable one, in this sassy-but-not-edgy boxing picture. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: There are cracks in the foundation, but it is nevertheless a surprisingly watchable production. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Meanders until it gets to the final third of its running time, and then it catches fire. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Somewhere along the way, I found myself enjoying Against the Ropes, not in spite of my better judgment, but because something in the movie defies the whole notion of better judgment altogether. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: By the end, everything that was initially serious about the film becomes silly and everything appealing about it turns sour. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Almost nothing about it feels drawn from real life. Read more
Globe and Mail: Wobbles like a punch-drunk fighter. Read more
Susan Walker, Toronto Star: Bathos wrapped in a formulaic screenplay bolstered with cliches, not only about the boxing world but about tough women and the men who hate them. Read more
Mike Clark, USA Today: Neither very credible nor one of those beyond-belief disposables you still find affable. Read more
Laura Sinagra, Village Voice: What could have been a Working Girl hoot gets mired in redundant assertions of Kallen's feistiness. Read more