‘Uppercut’ Review: Big Apple-Set Remake of German Boxing Drama Gets Lost in Translation

variety.com:

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Remakes from foreign-language originals often face difficulties in translating material from one cultural context to another, but seldom has that been so awkward as in “Uppercut,” Torsten Reuther’s Americanized retooling of his 2021 German debut “Leberhaken” (aka “Liver Punch”).

What was already a problematically stagey wade into normally action-oriented terrain — the underdog sports drama — gains additional hurdles here from the writer-director’s tin ear for English dialogue, as well as the inexplicable return of a lead actor even less adept in a foreign tongue.

Lionsgate is rolling this earnest but unconvincing feature out to limited U.S. theaters as well as digital platforms on Feb.

28. The setup may well remind you of prior female boxer films, notably “Million Dollar Baby” and recent “The Fire Inside.” Alas, it never really gets beyond their narrative starting gates, in which a green but determined young woman pushes to be accepted as pupil by an initially dismissive, reluctant veteran trainer.