Michael Jai White steps into the role of George Chambers, who is framed for drug possession while filming a commercial in Russia and is sent to prison, all as a part of a plot to set up a match between him and the penitentiary's reigning champion, Yuri Boyka. And yet, Undisputed 2 proved to be a mountainous leap above its predecessor. Everything about the movie sounds like a red flag - a straight-to-DVD sequel to a theatrical release, one that didn't even make many waves itself, without either of the original stars. The first Undisputed might technically be the starting point of franchise, but it didn't truly get underway until the arrival of Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, with incoming director Isaac Florentine at the helm. Undisputed would end up being completely overshadowed by the subsequent entries in the series, and despite not being an outright letdown as a boxing movie, it also isn't a particularly memorable one. Their final showdown in the prison ring isn't bad, but also doesn't manage to elevate the rest of the film either. However, beyond a purely physical level - and despite the energy Rhames brings to the role - Chambers doesn't amount to much of a villain other than a simple tyrant among the inmate population. The ring-based boxing fights largely bookend the film and they're relatively decent the Chambers and Hutchens match is led into well enough, and the training dominates the movie's center. Unfortunately, the script doesn't do much to flesh them or their conflict out past that, with Chambers especially being little more than a reprobate who doesn't have much on his mind besides the next inmate he plans on slugging. In the role of Chambers, Rhames channels a megalomaniac who never passes up the chance to punch someone in the face, while Snipes is his polar opposite as the cool and centered Hutchen, relishing a good fight on its own terms without any real concern for whether he comes out on top or not. The franchise got off to an inauspicious start with the 2002 original while Undisputed is by no means a terrible movie, it doesn't have the impact of the later films in the franchise. When world heavyweight boxing champ George "Iceman" Chambers, played by Ving Rhames, arrives at Sweetwater prison, his efforts to establish himself as the top dog among the inmate population leads him to set his sights on the penitentiary's boxing champion Monroe Hutchen, played by Wesley Snipes. To top it off, the Undisputed sequels also frequently put big screen action to shame with some of the most mesmerizing martial arts battles of the modern age. For a series devoted to the self-proclaimed " Most Complete Fighter in the World," it certainly hasn't failed to live up to that boast. Wherever the Undisputed franchise heads in the future, there's no denying that it found its groove with the arrival of Boyka, whose story has taken him from a determined antagonist to a more centered anti-hero to a completely selfless warrior.
RELATED: All 8 Unmade Bruce Lee Movies & Shows (& Why They Didn't Happen)
#UNDISPUTED 2 MOVIE PART 1 SERIES#
Though the series has seemingly wrapped up with the fourth movie, Boyka: Undisputed, there has also been talk in the years since of a TV series, as well. Following his debut in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, Boyka has been a staple of the series ever since, while Adkins has gone on to be one of the most respected and recognizable martial arts action stars in the world. Numerous big names that many action fans regard as nothing less than royalty have been a part of the Undisputed franchise over the years, but it's really been Scott Adkins whose been at the center of the series. Adkins plays the Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka.
The action at the heart of the Undisputed movies would also evolve too, going from boxing in the first film to mixed martial arts, or MMA, in the sequels. Though 2002's Undisputed would get the ball rolling on the big-screen, it's really been the three sequels that have come to define what fans of the series love about it. Among straight-to-DVD action franchises, the Undisputed series has set the bar high.
0 kommentar(er)
