If this is what is going on behind bars, we can only thank God that these guys are safely locked away where they can no longer wreak their havoc on the public at large. Indeed, the bars of which I speak are actually bars within bars, as the prisoners participate in an inter-prison boxing league within the institution and within a fully enclosed steel cage that appears like a World Wresting cage match more than it resembles a prison boxing center.

The setting of the new film, “Undisputed,” is California's newly built Sweetwater prison, an institution housing 750 inmates and a sub-group of some of the toughest fighters on the face of the earth, including the official heavyweight champion of the world and the unofficial heavyweight champion of the world (who might just be heavyweight champion if he weren’t behind bars). As fate would have it, and as only Hollywood can plan it, those two individuals just so happen to be in the right place (prison) at exactly the right time to meet for the match of all matches, not at Caesar's Palace, but at Sweetwater Prison.

Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes) learned his trade during ten years of training in prison, compiling a perfect record of 67 wins and no losses. The actual World Champion, "Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames) is convicted of rape while Hutchen is at the height of his prowess, and where should he be headed but Sweetwater Prison. So the best of the outside world is destined to meet the best of the inside in the battle of the ages for the true undisputed championship.

The plot is rather contrived, and the story builds to a logical conclusion over an obligatory 80 minute presage. There’s plenty of fight films out there, and there’s plenty of prison films. And there’s plenty of films where fighting has taken place in prison. The only way to distinguish a film like "Undisputed" from any of its ilk is to assess the ability of its stars. The casting of Rhames is fitting for a boxer, as the guy veritably looks like a heavy-weight fighter. And he tries dearly to act the part, with the obligatory swagger and arrogance that predictably makes even the most hardened of Sweetwater’s murders recline. But his portrait doesn't ring entirely true, as the tough-guy image seems forced and unnatural for Rhames. He simply doesn't possess that extra hardened edge of a heavyweight fighter.

Which leads us to the second half of the match – Wesley Snipes. The versatile and ubiquitous actor tries his hand in a role in which he is destined to fail right from the start. He doesn't have the physical presence for a heavyweight, not to mention that his facial expressions simply do not convey the attitude of a fighter. The Producers instead choose to script Hutchen as a Zen master, a fighter who exercises brain over brawn, mind over matter. In fiction, Snipes might be able to defeat men who are fifty percent larger than him, but these types of mismatches are outside of the realm of physical probability.

Further, Snipes doesn't get sufficient screen-time to justify the Producers’ decision to cast him Buddhist, as his character building is limited exclusively to brief isolated phrases and much (supposedly) weighty silence. I suppose the uniqueness of Snipes’ character, both physically and mentally, gives "Undisputed" a leg above the utter stereotyped fight films, but that does not mean that Snipes’ character is particularly interesting.

While "Undisputed" is undisputedly slickly produced, with dramatic music and brutal, thumping sound effects, the movie cannot stand on these virtues alone. “Undisputed” is 90 minutes of brainless entertainment and nothing more.