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On the Ropes
WinStar Cinema


8.5

based on 13 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Starring Harry Keitt, Randy Little, Tyrene Manson, and Mickey Marcello

A documentary highlighting three young boxers from the mean streets of Brooklyn and their coach as they prepare for the 1997 Golden Gloves Tournament, giving equal attention to their experiences in and out of the ring.

GENRE(S):	Documentary
DIRECTED BY:	Nanette Burstein Brett Morgen
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 25, 2000 Video: April 25, 2000 Theatrical: September 24, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	94 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Exceptional, powerful new documentary.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A sports documentary as gripping, in a different way, as "Hoop Dreams."

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Walking out of the theater, I felt so bereft that I couldn't speak. And it doesn't hurt any less thinking about the movie now, as I write this.

LA Weekly David Davis

Jolts with a quiet intimacy.

Austin Chronicle Matt Williams

The documentary has no narration, and uses excellent expository camerawork to say things that no narrator could equal.

Boston Globe Renee Graham

Has the impact of a left-right combination to the chin.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

In recording life as it unfolds in the course of a year, On the Ropes not only defies prediction as to its outcome but is in some ways downright confounding...as involving and suspenseful as the best fictional films.

New York Post Rod Dreher

What the film lacks in freshness...it makes up for in its sympathetic and compelling portrayal of its subjects.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Isn't so emotionally powerful as the Oscar-winning "When We Were Kings" but which -- in its more intimate way -- still packs a punch.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Often technically rough, but it's painfully compelling.

Village Voice Gary Dauphin

Burstein and Morgen take all this in from an unobtrusive middle distance, letting the subjects themselves slowly complicate the profusion of athletic and ghetto-real clichés that fly scattershot in the early going.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The material is powerful--one boxer has been accused of a crime and the trial conflicts with a crucial competition--but much of it feels predigested, the themes inadvertently one-dimensional.

San Francisco Examiner Edvins Beitiks

The story of a trainer and three of his boxers trying to break away from the confines of a gym in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Each story is strong, gripping in its own way. But you've heard them all before.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

John N. gave it a10:
This is Hoop Dreams for Boxers. A well done documentary about the real drama of boxing. My prayers go to Tyrene.

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On the Ropes WinStar Cinema

On the Ropes
WinStar Cinema