Rating: 
Summary: See this film
Review: Ali may not be "the greatest" film you'll ever see but it makes a respectful showing as it tells the life of a living legend. I was very young when Ali was in his prime but still
I remember the respect he gained from the people in my community. Ali, as played (very well) by Will Smith is a
showman, a philospher, a poet and a lover. Smith was perfectly
cast here. Who else could mimic his charisma? Jon Voight's
is superb as Howard Cosell. His and Smith's performance is
worth the price of rental.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Greatest
Review: Let me start off with the positive. This film had excellent performances by Will Smith as the great boxer and Jon Voight as Howard Cosell. The supporting cast had been surprisingly strong. I found the music appropriate to the situations Ali faced as the film went on. The fight scenes were greatly coreographed, and captured the essence of Ali's unique boxing style versus his everyday self.I did have several problems with this film, however. I do not think of this film as a "biopic." It is more of a destined Hollywood hit, which does flaw the overall effect. The film does not capture Ali's childhood and his early relation with his parents. Without mentioning this, they are also leaving behind his motivation as a boxer. It only captures the ten pivotal years for his career, which most of us had already known with the emphasis of the media. This film is about Ali the boxer, not Ali the man. His marriages and the birth of his children go by without any mention, while too much emphasis is placed on the events leading up to his fights. Michael Mann has been known to direct films in which much of the story is based on the careers of his main characters. Disappointingly, this is another one of those films.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what we thought
Review: We were not nearly as impressed over this movie as we hoped to be. It's not Will's fault (he was great actually) it's just that the movie gives you a quick overview of his life and you never really get to know the character at all.
It was more facts than anything (which we already knew) and not as personal or dramatic as we would have liked. Definetly not worth a buy!
Rating:
Summary: "The Greatest" deserves better
Review: Ali, a self-absorbed philandering idiot in a slow, slow movie with bad music. Will Smith's acting was good, but everything else stunk for this film. Please, don't waste 2+ hrs of your life on this. I regret that I did.
Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the hype
Review: I guess from all the critical acclaim, I was expecting a little more from this movie. A few issues jump to my mind: First, I just cannot see Will Smith AS Ali; it looks to me like Will Smith is IMITATING Ali. Second, the after watching the first hour of the movie, I couldn't tell if I was watching a movie about Muhammad Ali or Malcolm X. You get the feeling the director is making up for the fact that he didn't get to direct the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Third, the movie shows a snapshot of 10 years in Ali's career. There is little background and little resolution, as you would expect in such a snapshot. And, to top it off, you just get the feeling the movie could have been done in about half the time, for all you get out of it. In the end, you don't get much of an impression of Ali that you didn't already know, and the relevant fight scenes have already been done better. "When We Were Kings", or even HBO's movie on Don King give a better treatment of Ali in the ring than this flick.
Rating:
Summary: superficial study of its subject
Review: "Ali" runs an impressive 157 minutes - yet we don't feel as if we know much more about Muhammad Ali THE PERSON at the end of the film than we did at the beginning. Sure, we may know more facts and details about his life than we did before but not about what really makes him TICK. Of course, any film that attempts to record the life of a man is, by necessity, going to have to pick and choose which of the many events of that life to leave in and which to throw out. Granted. But the cursory nature of the screenplay causes a serious problem for this film. The story picks up Ali's life in 1964, back when he was still known as Cassius Clay, de-throning Sonny Liston to become heavyweight-boxing champion of the world. The time in his life before this event is dealt with in elliptical fashion. We see virtually nothing about how he was raised, what his parents were like, what kind of values they instilled in him, what motivated him to become a boxer and, most importantly, what drew him so passionately to the creed espoused by the Nation of Islam. Without this crucial understanding of his formative years, the Ali we see in the film seems a very superficial version of the undoubtedly more complex real life figure. For all the screenplay's devotion to the minutiae of Ali's career as a boxer, his travels to Africa, his experiences with women, his world-famous bouts with Joe Frasier and George Foreman, the Ali of this film remains a frustrating enigma from first moment to last. Worse, he remains static as a character, never undergoing the kind of mental, emotional or psychological growth one would expect a biography to show us. Even his trademark egotism comes across as just a front for public consumption since he doesn't exhibit any undue arrogance in his dealings with those around him when he is out of the limelight. Perhaps that might be the point the film is trying to make, but if it is, it is never clearly or effectively exploited to any thematic or dramatic purpose. That is not to say that the film does not provide some ancillary pleasures. Certainly, its strongest asset is its ability to recreate a fascinating time in world history. Since Ali's life seemed to touch on so many of the key events of that era - racism, Black Pride, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. - his story actually becomes emblematic of the times in which he prospered. Director Michael Mann manages to capture the flavor of that moment in bold, telling strokes, in large crowd scenes and in glimpses of protest riots and the brutal slayings of unarmed men. Yet, when necessary, Mann proves himself the master of both understatement and subtlety, as in his almost indirect depiction of King's killing. In terms of their editing, the boxing scenes seem somehow less dynamic - and thereby perhaps a bit more realistic - than those in many other films on the subject. Will Smith does an excellent job in bringing Ali to life, even if the script doesn't always provide him with the material he could have used to get at the core of the man's being. Jon Voight does an effective job under all the makeup impersonating the inimitable Howard Cosell, yet, here too, we are never really shown just how this obviously symbiotic relationship between the boxer and the sportscaster ever came to develop. It is crucial details like these which seem to be missing all throughout the movie. Thus, despite the wonderful time capsule aspect of the film, "Ali" emerges as a disappointingly superficial study of its subject. For whatever reason, the lives of boxers remain prime grist for the moviemaking mill. In just the last few years alone, we have had films made about both "Hurricane" Carter and Muhammad Ali. My only question is this: can "The Mike Tyson Story" be far behind?
Rating: 
Summary: Ali is not a movie character
Review: Last December this movie was a big disappointment both for the critics than the box office: I think it was unavoidable since Ali is a character too big and multifaceted to be reduced to a movie. Will Smith performance is impressive and Michael Mann's techinque filming the boxing matches works well because it gives you the sensation of being on the ring: maybe this movie could appeal to someone who hasn't read books about Ali, nor seen documentaries, however in such a case I suggest you read Remnick's "King of the world" and watch Gast's "When we were Kings".
This DVD edition is a barebone one: the video is honest, no state of the art here; the 5.1 DD audio track is good but no much surround effects here.
Rating:
Summary: Too Long, But Strong
Review: This is not a perfect movie by any means. But Will Smith is brilliant as Ali, particularly during the early part of the film, where he superbly portrays the boxer in his young Cassius Clay days. I remember those years when Cassius Clay came to prominence, and Smith captures his spirit, his cheekiness, his strength, and his sheer, confident youth to a tee. As Clay grows as a boxer and as a man, embraces the Muslim faith, and becomes Muhammad Ali, he changes more than his religion and name. The cockiness is still there, but so is the cynicism and disappointment brought on by too much fame, too much money, too many women, too many hangers-on. Smith handles the change from brash youth to more thoughtful man with subtlety and aplomb. The disappointing part of the film, which begins to drag on and on, is the lack of depth in Ali's relationships. His marriages are glossed over quickly...we get no sense of what he is really thinking, or what his private life is really like. The same holds true of his relationships with his entourage, from his manager on down. If this was meant to come across as aloofness, it didn't work; this viewer found it very frustrating. Nevertheless, the movie is worth seeing, for the sheer exuberance of Smith's acting, and the absolutely dead-on portrayal of the late sportscaster Howard Cosell, rendered fabulously by Jon Voight. It is not a brilliant movie, but in my view, it deserves more than 3 stars. I think it is inexplicably under-rated.
Rating:
Summary: Will Smith Ain't Ali
Review: The life of Muhammed Ali could have made a great film. But this attempt comes up way short for two main reasons: 1) Instead of portraying Ali in a balanced way, it attempts glorification of someone who had more than his fair share of human failings. 2) Will Smith is seriously miscast. In the film, he doesn't look like, talk like, or act Ali. Will Smith might be good in the role of a light-weight boxer, but it was a big mistake to think he could portray a heavy-weight.
Rating:
Summary: Great....If You Happen To Like Will Smith
Review: I didn't purchase this film and I really don't plan to since I really didn't like it that much when I rented it. I got confused for a second and thought I'd rented a Will Smith[movie]...I thought that this movie was at least watchable especially during the fight scenes. The choregraphy was on the money. Smith even talked trash like the original and the greatest Ali...He would've been Ali had he been a boxer and had a big mouth but Ali was more than that, he refused to go to Vietnam, he stood against what society during his hayday thought he should've been complacent with like racism and to some degree class discrimination... I think if you don't like Smith, you won't really like this movie. You ought to check out some of the movies staring the real Ali! You get to see the Man in action albeit black exploitation but still a lot better than Smith's Ali!
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