Product Details

• Actors: Erika Eleniak, James Colby, Aunjanue Ellis, John Doman, Harry O'Reilly
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: January 29, 2002
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005QW6T
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,431 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Opponent" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

OPPONENT - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thinking outside the box, May 7, 2003

By 

David Lee "spacedog12" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Opponent (DVD)

Before I first saw this movie I was expecting a Lifetime channel movie
of the week, but it turned out to be a little better than that. In fact
I thought it had a hint of independent movieness about it or it could have
been the small budget. Maybe it was both. Kind of a quiet movie, small
cast, and urban Detroit setting. Erika portrays a woman, Patty, caught
up in an abusive relationship and struggles to find her way out of it.
Hooking up with a Tommy, a would-be amateur boxer who also runs a boxing
gym, Patty asks him to help train her. Her reasoning? Maybe to take out
her frustrations over being defenseless and punched out by her boyfriend
or to somehow seek her own independence. Patty's boxing interest takes
off and although becomes a novelty at first, through the magic of
film she ends up in the championship bout of the year.

The chemistry between the Tommy and Patty was nice and restrained at first
to allow the plot to unfold before the fireworks go off between them. James
Colby was a good find for this movie and thought he had boxing and all the
mythology about it at the right temperature for this movie which wasn't about
boxing in my opinion. Not about what they could get out of boxing, but what
boxing would make of them - stronger in life inside and outside the ring
hopefully. Peripheral characters include the opportunistic boxing promoter, a sympathetic
girlfriend and the desperate loser boyfriend all of whom put in good performances in their roles.

I like that Erika tried to pick an atypical movie project that stretches her
talent and this one does it. Never would have expected her to portray a reasonable
fascimile of a boxer, but she does pull it off. She looks really cut in this
movie and although a lot of the boxing was sloppy and wild, in the climatic
Rocky fight against a really buff opponent (professional maybe?) she looked
like she had done some good training for this movie. Only nit-picky thing I
had was I wished they hadn't beauty groomed her to be so good looking in this
movie (maybe it's just her natural beauty and she can't help it!), but a
dress-down like Cameron Diaz in "Being John Malkovich" where she was so grungy
and unrecognizable would have made the character more sympathetic and empowering
when she succeeds. And the most important thing - was there nudity? Well...
if I had directed there would have been the quintessential shower scene, but alas
they didn't ask me. She does have a brief nude scene from the side in a love
scene with James Colby where I was still wowed with her hot bod.
Not much stuff on the dvd except audio setup and chapter selections, actor
commentary or making of the movie would have been nice to see though. Another good
Erika movie to see is A Pyromanic's Love Story with a strong performances by
John Leguizamo and Sadie Frost.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This is another "Knockout" movie...., August 3, 2002

By 

Reginald M. Lumagui "green_lantern_2814" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Opponent (DVD)

..as in similar to the movie "Knockout" and not really a great boxing movie. It's more of a cute girl doing boxing. Erika Eleniak looks to be in great shape for the movie. It's too bad the script is really boring that you can't get more into it. Even with Erika in great shape, she's no boxer which becomes quite apparent during her training and fight sequences. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. As always, they choose a real female boxer as an opponent but don't spend enough time training the star to complement the adversary. About the only good refreshing thing about this movie was the coach and his gym. It was interesting to see a young coach and his bviews about boxing and training. Don't know if that's enough to carry this movie for some. It wasn't for me. Nope, definitely can't recommend this movie unless it goes to deep discount, and you're just bored at 12 AM.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Better than just OK, but far from great, July 23, 2010

By 

Beantown Jim (Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Opponent (DVD)

Erika Eleniak is in this film; a confession...having seen Baywatch and Under Siege, I bought it for that reason. She is beautiful and sexy, but she also can act(which wasn't brought out in Baywatch...shocking). In this little film, she and the film reach a middle level of quality which is about all it, and she, can achieve. A small plot about female fighters, Erika is well cast as a strong, robust female who can be "macho" (i.e. fighting) without losing her feminine qualities. To sum up, if you think Erika is great, or at least "hot", then buying this film at a reduced or "used" price(as I did) is worthwhile; she is featured well in the film. If you are looking for the penultimate film on female fighters, then skip this film, skip Clint Eastwood's depressing Oscar winner on the subject, and buy the little seen but well regarded "Fight Night" also available at Amazon. If is excellent and leagues ahead of this film.