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Travis Willock reviews
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 29327
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 17
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.98
- Extras:Conversation with Ving Rhames, Conversation with Wesley Snipes.
Director:
- Walter Hill
Screenplay:
- David Giler and Walter Hill
Cast:
- Monroe Hutchen: Wesley Snipes
George “Iceman” Chambers: Ving Rhames
Ripstein: Peter Falk
Mingo Pace: Wes Studi
Ratbag: Fisher Stevens
Yank Lewis: Dayton Calle
First impressions of seeing this in the store would be:“was this direct-to-video?” those three dreaded words.Believe it or not this wasat the theaters, albeit a very short time frame. I remember seeing atrailer for this one about a year before it came out. So why was itdelayed? I really have no idea because it’s not that bad.
George “Iceman” Chambers, heavyweight boxing champ of the world, is sentto California’s new jail, Sweetwater, after being convicted of rape.Iceman is one of those typical athletes (a reporter calls him a athleteand he replys that he is not one but a gladiator) who think they’rebetter than anyone else. Of course Iceman struts his stuff and talkstrash to anyone who looks at him in the suprisingly laid back prison (Ifit’s maximum security why does everyone roam freely?). But there seemsto be an underground boxing ring in the prison which has been dominatedby the undisputed champ Monroe Hutchen. To prove himself Icemanchallenges the prison champ to a match that could mean an early parolefor his victory.
The first thing you’ll notice about the film is it’s style. A movie likethis could have been filmmed dully but some care was put into providinggood cuts and effective angles.The cast is headed up by Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames who perform verywell.
The script is sometimes convoluted and some scenes fill like fillers toprolong the movie until the fight. But there’s an engrossing theme inthe film that you’ll want to view. Maybe it’s just the buildup or maybeit’s just the characters. The bottom line is that this movie is notgreat but OK and at least worth a rental.
After Buena Vista’s track record for mediocre video transfers I wasready to start complaining about this but that’s not the case. Thetransfer is suprisingly clean of any compression artifacts orpixelization. Colors are sharp and well balanced. The film just has aclear clean look to it. The only thing that hurts it is the intrusion ofsome scratches on the print and minor grain. Overall this is one of thebetter Buena Vista transfers available. Maybe they’re finally gettingthe picture?
Audio is presented in an average 5.1 track. The movie is mostly dialougebased but surround channels are used effectively for the fights. Thetrack is also accompanied by a few rap songs. Definitely not somethingto knock down a wall or two.
With Buena Vista not packing the Reign of Fire DVD what makes you thinkthey would pack this one? The only thing we get are two conversations ,one with Ving Rhames and the other with Wesley Snipes. Ving’s runs 4minutes while Snipes’ runs 6 minutes. Both are presented in full frameand feel extremely tacked on. They feel like a cheap alternative than afull fledged commentary track.
Packaging is amaray and thankfully Buena Vista has included at least 17chapter stops. The cover is yet another cast photo from them.
Overall, Undisputed won’t exactly rock your world but it won’t cover itin despair either. A decent storyline and a couple of good charactersmake it worthwhile. While the video transfer is good I just can’trecommend a purchase at $29.98.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLEmailTravis Willock
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.