This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Sure, title bouts are the glamourous pinnacle of boxing. But any fight fan will tell you the real action is often found on the undercard, when hungry young scrappers try to clamber their way to the top by walloping each other into oblivion.
That’s the type of boxer Woody Harrelson and (don’t laugh) Antonio Banderas play in this flick, as well as the sort of artist found on this soundtrack — middleweight contenders such as Fishbone (the funkadelic opener Shakey Ground) and Los Lobos (the off-kilter serenade Corazon). Factor in a one-two combination of blues and gospel (Kirk Franklin’s joyous hip-hopper Gonna Be A Lovely Day leads into B.B. King and Joe Cocker’s devilish Dangerous Mood; Linda Jackson’s I Must Tell Jesus introduces John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom), and Play It to the Bone wins on points.
