Against the Ropes meanders until it gets to the final third of its running time, and then it catches fire.

It succeeds in many of the ways a sports movie should, and, by employing a slightly different viewpoint for most of the production, manages a sense of freshness.

Some of the performances show flashes of idiosyncrasy and flair that are nearly snuffed out by the pedestrian script.

Despite its problems, the picture still satisfies -- more than a lot of allegedly worthy "A list" movies do. In a movie world where heavyweight often means top-heavy, Against the Ropes shows some pretty fleet footwork.

There's not a moment in Against the Ropes where you forget this is perky Meg Ryan up onscreen, talking trashy and acting tough.

The movie is only sporadically interesting.

As a boxing movie, Against the Ropes is perfunctory, with a well-muscled Omar Epps diligently enduring predictable montages showing his rise to fame as Jackie's first protégé. As a biopic, it's likewise uninspired stuff.

Wobbles like a punch-drunk fighter. It never finds its legs, but allows Ryan -- whose wardrobe looks like Erin Brockovich crossed with Barbarella -- the space to do what she does best: turn on the charm, and make audiences wonder why she's slumming in such a lame storyline.

By the end, everything that was initially serious about the film becomes silly and everything appealing about it turns sour.

I'm far from being a fan of the sport, but the boxing sequences held me and the overall atmosphere appears reasonably authentic.

The script (by Cheryl Edwards, who wrote "Save the Last Dance") is shallow and dumb, the conflict (success goes to Jackie's head) is especially unconvincing, and director Charles S. Dutton shamelessly allows his own small part (as Jackie's mentor) to hog the camera.

Though the movie is more mediocre than abysmal, Ryan's recently banged-up filmography (remember In the Cut) could use what every fighter needs at ringside: a good cut man to stop the bleeding.

It's a weird anti-woman message masquerading in a movie about empowerment. And there's nothing inspired about that.

A shopworn studio contraption, slapped together from second-hand parts.