Ali (2001)

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This film is fantastic for the most part. Not only with a stunning performance from Will Smith, but with a great story that goes on a good flow, great acting, but an amazing setup, with not only the locations and props used, but the way the film was made as well. This film is easily one of the better biopics I have seen. While this film is great, I will be honest and say that it can drag on in a few scenes and feel a bit exhausting. But other than that, this film is truly a wonderful biopic that will go down in history as one of Will Smiths best movies. I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of the boxing legend himself, Muhammad Ali, as this films great story, great acting, alongside Will Smiths amazing performance is much more than enough to impress.

Great subject but, strangely, unengaging movie.The story of Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, boxers who has ever lived. Shows from his first title bout (as Cassius Clay) until the conclusion of the "Rumble in the Jungle" versus George Foreman. Covers his conversion to Islam, his relationships, his being drafted into the Army and his refusal to go, his subsequent legal issues and a myriad of other details.Interesting, from an historical perspective, but feels flat and unengaging as a human drama. On paper it should work - the movie is directed by Michael Mann, of Heat, Collateral, Public Enemies, The Last of the Mohicans and Miami Vice fame. However, he is more an action-drama / thriller director and it shows, to a degree, in this movie. Characters aren't developed very well but the action scenes (in this case, the fight scenes) are great.Part of the problem is that Mann tries to cram as many events from Ali's life into the movie as possible. Even though the movie is fairly long at 2 1/2 hours, many of the lesser events are given a passing mention, with no real context. You often feel no connection to the event and they just feel like flashes across the screen.A better way to tackle the subject would have been to concentrate on the big themes and events of Ali's life, and leave out all the miscellaneous life. This, or make a mini-series rather than a movie. The man did and achieved so much, 2 1/2 hours is hardly enough time to encapsulate his life.On the plus side, as mentioned before the fight scenes are great. Well staged, well shot and very tense.Will Smith got a Best Leading Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ali, but I am not sure he deserved it. Physically he is not imposing enough to be Ali. Furthermore, while he does a great job at capturing Ali's bravado and trash-talking, his verbal tone just doesn't seem right in normal speech. It's as if every line of dialogue is a speech, rather than just normal dialogue, and this can be quite irritating at times.Good supporting cast though. Jon Voight is almost unrecognizable as legendary sports presenter, and Ali's verbal sparring partner, Howard Cosell. He does a great job and got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his efforts.Good work too from Jamie Foxx. The hidden gem is Mykelti Williamson who gives a great, over-the-top, often-hilarious performance as boxing promoter Don King.Overall, considering the subject, this movie is disappointing but there is enough there to keep you interested.

The first thing that I am prepared to acknowledge is Will Smith's performance in this film; he was impressive and seemed to really get into the character of Ali. Although his acting was excellent in this film, I don't believe that he should have been Oscar nominated. Likewise, Foxx and several of the supporting characters were also excellent. The film was also well-shot and generally well-made and from a technical aspect it was a fairly polished product. Unfortunately, that's where the praise for this film ends....For me there was far too much time spent on dull aspects of Ali's life such as Ali's various relationships - this aspect of his life got way too much focus and it did, at times, make the film feel like an over-long combination of melodrama and soap opera. At the same time, other potentially more interesting or important areas seemed to either have been ignored or glossed over - there's very little focus on Ali's training, no real mention of his family. Considering the film is over 2 and a half hours long I expected there to be a reasonable amount of boxing and/or training, but we're probably treated to about 30 minutes of boxing (if that) and then 2 hours of melodrama and soap opera. I'm sure a lot of what I describe as 'melodrama' and 'soap opera' type events did occur in Ali's life, but these elements don't make for an entertaining film and should have been kept to a minimum.All of the above isn't helped by the fact that the screenplay felt like it was put together in a haphazard way - the writers would shift from one aspect of Ali's life to another in quick succession barely giving you chance to digest what you've just seen.Although from a technical perspective this film was generally well put together and polished I did feel that the camera work during the boxing matches was pretty poor and as a result I didn't feel quite as involved in the action as I did when I've watched other boxing films. This came as a really big disappointment when you consider how poor many other elements of the film were.Aside from the great performances, there really isn't much else going for this film. My feeling are that it was an over-long soap opera with a bit of boxing thrown in here and there. If you want to see a good boxing biopic then I would recommend Cinderella Man. Muhammad Ali may be the Greatest, but this film certainly isn't.

Ali is a biographical film that film tells the story of the boxer Muhammad Ali, played by Will Smith, from 1964 to 1974. Michael Mann directs.The story features the following events:his capture of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston;his conversion to Islam; criticism of the Vietnam War; banishment from boxing; his return to the ring against Joe Frazier in 1971;and when he won once again the heavyweight title by taking it by upsetting George Foreman in 1974.When a filmmaker decides to make a film on Ali,who considers himself The Greatest,one must also expect the greatest film to be made about him.Unfortunately,it does not meet those standards.Despite the fact that Will Smith was able to capture the persona of The Greatest and willed himself to be Muhammad Ali,the script is far from being engaging.It is more concerned about details of the events of his life that it serves like a documentary rather than an entertaining film about the champ.Added to that,the viewer does not get to know the man more while watching it as the viewer is treated to a very long film more about the events that happened rather than the giving us the glimpse of the most charismatic boxer who had fun with his fame when he was the most known athlete of the world.