"Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames) is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, brought low by a rape conviction and sent to a maximum-security prison. Monroe Hutchin is the undisputed boxing champion of said maximum-security prison, passing his time between bouts by crafting Asian structures out of toothpicks. Hill neither apologizes nor waffles in making his hero a contemplative murderer, focusing instead on the uncomfortable relationship between the underprivileged pushed into big payday bloodsports and the criminal and wealthy who bid on their outcome. Hobbling around like a profane Yiddish Yoda as the latter, Peter Falk is fantastic in a delicious, broad performance as Jewish mobster "Mendy" Ripstein, the brains behind the predestined match between Iceman and Monroe around a mouthful of blue marbles.

For as interesting as the implications are of prison officials being manipulated by organized crime and the dictates of famous inmates, the real fascination of Undisputed springs from the boxing scenes themselves. Each punch seen through prison bars, the fights become not so much a struggle of man vs. man as brother-man vs. The Man--a sociological allegory brought home by Monroe's Black Power salute during the film's climax. The suggestion that Monroe has reformed (clearly passive, his share of the illicit purse goes to a needy sister), coupled with the conviction that Iceman probably has not, serves, too, as an indictment of a criminal justice system that seems as much predicated on financial wherewithal as blind justice. The issues aren't surprising and the conclusions are already part of the popular cynicism, but Undisputed lands its telegraphed blows with power and conviction.

On a more visceral level, Undisputed is a lean, economical vehicle for Snipes and Rhames that blends the prison melodrama and the underdog sports intrigue with satisfying aplomb and a refreshing lack of pretension. But like Hill's underestimated Trespass and Johnny Handsome or his lauded The Warriors, beneath the veneer of an expert, somewhat gritty film noir redux lurks a strong social conscience and a canny visual storyteller. Easy to dismiss but not so easy to shake, Undisputed is classic Hill, and the extent to which you appreciate this enigmatic director's acute eye and urban ethic is also the extent to which you'll enjoy the picture. Undisputed is tight and potent mass entertainment as subtle as it is broad, presented with the kind of weary confidence of a grizzled fighter down but not yet out.-Walter Chaw