It's not hard to understand why Meg Ryan would be attracted to the true story of ballsy boxing manager Jackie Kallen: a chance to dress and talk Erin Brockovich-trashy and maybe snag Oscar attention. But the movie, so loosely based on Kallen's life as to bear no relation to human life on this planet, is a stiff. A miscast Ryan struggles with a Detroit accent and a script that goes nowhere. Good actors — Omar Epps as a wanna-be champ, Charles Dutton as his trainer, Tony Shalhoub as a promoter — go down with the ship steered by Dutton, who also serves as director. Critics and audiences should unite to KO this loser.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.