Ali

Rating:
Summary: Good while it lasts, but why couldn't it have been more?
Review: I was never alive back when Muhammad Ali was king of the world in the boxing arenas, but I've watched a good number of his fights on a great channel called Classic Sports Network. I was always impressed with his skills as a fighter and his cheekiness and trash talking was usually humorous. In other words, I'm a Muhammad Ali fan.

I rented "Ali" after hearing all the praise that it's received from the start, even though I'm usually not a fan of biographical movies. During and after watching the movie, I had feelings that resided on both sides of the spectrum. The movie lasts about two and a half hours. During those two and a half hours, the movie is entertaining and it may even show you some things you didn't know about Muhammad Ali (I learned some new things). On top of all that, Will Smith does a really good job of portraying Muhammad Ali's old personality (harsh sense of humor, saying anything and everything he wants, etc.), while also fighting like the classic boxer (yep, you'll even see the famous shuffling of the feet).

However, when the movie was over, it left me disappointed. One, it mainly just shows the things that Muhammad Ali went through during parts of his boxing career. What did Cassius Clay grow up doing? What were his parents and siblings like? How has he adjusted to life after getting Parkinson's disease? And the list could go on and on for several more lines. On top of that, it's not even comprehensive when it comes to his boxing career; it doesn't even mention many fights such as those against Larry Holmes.

Pretty much, the movie ends all of a sudden and it will leave you asking many questions. It's a prime example of a film with a MAJOR cliffhanger involved. But like I said, it is a good movie and it's entertaining while it lasts. If you're a boxing or Muhammad Ali fan, I would recommend renting "Ali" before buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Movie - DVD [is bad].
Review: There's nothing special about this DVD. Nothing extra, nothing but the movie. Don't waste your money on it. Instead, wait for the special edition that's bound to come out in the months ahead that'll have everything this doesn't.

Rating:
Summary: "And the challenger... er, um, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?"
Review: I'm sorry, but I just couldn't resist that one. I been wanting to say that ever since this movie first came out. All jokes aside though, Will Smith really does turn in a pretty convincing performance as one of the most exciting and provocative figures in history. The heart and passion he put into his performance is clearly evident, and that's something you just have to admire. And I honestly wish I could base my opinion solely on his performance, so I could give the overall movie a higher rating, but, alas, a real fan or critic just can't fairly do that, so I'm forced to look at it all wich doesn't measure up unfortunately.

After all the hype surrounding this movie, dating all the way back to when it was in the development process and the talk in the rumor mill of all the training that Smith was undergoing to muscle up and really tackle the role, I just had really high expectations for it. But, the finished product is just less-than-stellar. And most of this is due to an incredibly choppy and confusing script. One of the big problems with the writing is that it leaves several crucial points unresolved, for example it never goes into depth about the failures of Ali's first two marriages. Instead it breezes right by the problems and tensions as if they're just trivial little facts. This belies another problem in this movie which is the chronological order of events. It's not that it doesn't follow the chronological order of Ali's life, but it never lets us know EXACTLY WHERE we're at. We're given a date of 1964 at the beginning, but after that nothing. Are we just s'posed to figure it out for ourselves or be able to follow along well enough to know when a year goes by, two years? And Smith doesn't really age at all over the course of the film so that makes it even more difficult. So that aspect of it really aggravated me. Most of the cast have good chemistry together, and a few of the supporting players actually turn in excellent work as well, particularly Jaimie Fox as "Bundini" Brown, and John Voight, who gave an incredibly authentic performance as Howard Cossell. Nona Gaye's breakthrough performance as Ali's second wife Belinda, is quite admirable considering she was given very little to work with.

Basically, a few re-writes in the script and maybe a different director would've suited this movie just fine. That's not to say that Michael Mann hacked 'Ali' up for all it was worth; it's a very beautiful-looking film, using popular music from the '60s and '70s quite well to heighten the emotions of some scenes as well as give an authentic aura of the time period, but the overall feeling is style over substance. I like Mann as a director, he's done good work in the past with movies like 'Heat' and the widely-acclaimed 'The Insider', but he just wasn't the right man for the job.

The only two moments of the film which really grabbed my attention were Ali's emotional reaction upon hearing of Malcolm X's death, and the final boxing match in Zaire with George Foreman, so I'd say to at least rent the movie for those scenes alone, as well as to see some of the great performances. Just don't expect to be totally grabbed by it all. The DVD has basically no features, which kind of surprised me, but didn't really bother me, since I don't really care about the details of how this film was made. All I would've cared about is maybe seeing some interviews with the real Ali, and maybe some television archives of some of his boxing matches and press conferences. Now, don't let my dryness fool ya, this is NOT by any means a terrible movie. It's just it could've been much, MUCH better.

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.