Director Reginald Hudlin ( HOUSE PARTY) gives us big-time boxing as ideological arena: Just beneath the surface of this deft, insightful comedy, the contradictory imperatives of race, corporate power and professional sports slug it out, to delightfully wicked effect.
Samuel L. Jackson plays flamboyantly rapacious promoter Fred Sultan -- any resemblance to Don King is purely intentional -- who blames falling gate receipts on the fact that "people are tired of paying money to see brothers beating up brothers." So he reinvents an obscure rock musician (Peter Berg
of THE LAST SEDUCTION and TV's
Chicago Hope) as "Irish Terry" Conklin, a latter-day Great White Hop...
Released:
1996
Rated:
R
Length:
109 mins