Ali

Rating:
Summary: Rich Little would have done just as good!
Review: One of the most charismatic people of the last 30 years finally gets a movie about his life; what a shame "The Fresh Prince" had to portray this hero. The movie falls short to all expectations and for some reason Smith gets acclaim.

Ali's life was something else. His life outside the ring rivaled his battles in the ring. The premise of the movie looks good on paper, but many aspects were left out. His encounters with Joe Frazier in and out the ring was for some reason excluded from the movie. Ali's rival WAS Joe Frazier.

Will Smith was decent in his imitation of Ali. He had the voice down (so does Billy Crystal), but all that weight gaining wasn't enough. His only love scene was with his real-life wife, this is not groundbreaking acting! Smith was good in the boxing scenes, which were better than any boxing-related movie to date.

All in all, very disappointing. Maybe there will be a sequel, if there's one for Men in Black, I can easily see one for this flick.

Rating:
Summary: Dissappointing to say the least
Review: Although the preformances of Will Smith and the rest of the cast are nothing less then first rate, the very long story is choppy and hard to follow. When viewing the film it was assumed by the film makers that everyone watching already knew all the facts and event's in Ali's life thus the film would jump from one month to one much later, and even years later skipping over explanation for signifigant events.
Anyone who know's Ali's life story already might find this much more appealing, however with out the background knowledge the film becomes hard to follow and rather confusing. With out this knowledge it becomes hard to even like this film at all. Even with actual effort put behind trying to like it.

Rating:
Summary: great acting...but where is this film going with its point?
Review: that is my big critique of Ali. it has some wonderful acting in it and the boxing scenes are totally cool. i hadnt really paid attention to Muhammed Ali's life before seeing this film, so i always questioned why everybody thought he was the best. once seeing this film, i could see why. but still, i had the feeling like the movie just simply picked up from Ali's life in 1964 and ending in 1976--or whenever that rumble in the jungle was--without really saying much of anything plot-wise.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed - I expected better.
Review: I believe that Will Smith is one of the most charismatic actors working today and looked forward to seeing him as Ali. Unfortunately, no actor can yet hold up to the original. Get the documentaries such as "When We Were Kings" instead of this film. Ali is still a larger than life human being who hasn't yet been captured in a fictional portrayal.
This is a well-made film, but lacks energy and drama.

Rating:
Summary: Ali's career was unique and controversial
Review: Starring Will Smith as Mohammad Ali, this film tries to do a lot. It especially answers the question as to why Ali has become such a famous American personality. Ali was unique in challenging some strong preconceived notions of what was appropriate for a world champion. And his relationship with Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam made him extremely controversial. He was a braggart, full of ego and not a very likeable person. But, after all, he was a boxer. And this is all part of the game.

There are a lot of fighting sequences in the film. They're shot from a wide variety of angles, including close-ups of gloves or shoulders or feet. It gives the impression of being right there in the ring and part of the action and I found myself wincing at the blows. I couldn't always tell who was hitting who however, and perhaps that was the director's intent. These were over-long in spite of the realism.

I enjoyed the parts or the film which explained Ali's conversion to Islam. And I was glad the film didn't pull any punches about the politics of how he was banned and then re-instated into the religion. Will Smith did a competent job as Ali, but it was rare when his face could register a significant range of emotion. More successful was Jamie Foxx, cast as one of Ali's trainers. He was the center of every scene he was in. Jon Voight played the late Howard Cosell and his scenes with Ali were excellent. The three women in Ali's life, played by Nona Gay, Jada Pinkett Smith and Michel Michele all managed to put their own personalities into small roles that could have easily been stereotyped.

The Mohamed Ali depicted in this film is somewhat of a hero. I can't say personally whether or not this is true. But the film is enjoyable to watch and moved quickly through its 2 hours and 38 minutes. It did need smoother transitions between episodes however. And I would have liked to know more about Ali's Islamic faith. Also, there was certain sameness to all of Ali's opponents. Perhaps the fact that all these questions surfaced in my own mind about Ali and his career is one of the strengths of the film. It left me yearning to know more. I give this film a mild recommendation as an introduction to the world of Mohammed Ali.

Rating:
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: Every once in a while a movie comes along and leaves you asking, "Why was this movie made?" ALI is this sort of movie. It is supurbly acted. Will Smith is outstanding as ALI and Jon Voight is great as Howard Cossell, but as a whole there is little in this film that's new to us. It basically chronicles Ali's fights and major events of his life durring that time, the most interesting being his ordeal with the US government over being drafted into service. Speaking for myself, I'm not an expert on Ali- but being a biographical film I was expecting to find out things about his life I didn't know. Beyond the fights and a few out of ring antics, there's nothing to the movie that kept my interest except analyzing the portrails of famous characters. All the recreations are flawless, but that doesn't really make up for the lack of story so plainly seen in this movie. For a true glimpse at the Greatest, watch ESPN Classic or "When We Were Kings".

Rating:
Summary: Best movie ever made that gets inside someones head.
Review: In the reviews what ive seen is everyone here who says that hated the movie, Ali, had very poor excuses for hating it. They are not at all well thought out because of the fact they expected to much from this film, when in fact they were missing what I believe was a very good point for the movie. I remember seeing one guys review saying that the films boxing scenes were poorly done and had bad sound editing throughout the movie. Who ever said that missed the point as did the rest of those people who gave the movie bad reviews.
No the movie does not reveal very many new things about Ali's life, but that was not its intension. no the movie does not portry his life very well at all, but that was not its intention. I think everyone who gave this film a bad rating were being to critcal and picky. They wanted the movie to show "new" things about his life, they wanted it to show "Action" and "suspense". Every single one of you who says this is WRONG.
Heres what the PURPOSE of the film was. In the fight scene with Sonny Liston, Liston hits Ali in the chest and knocks him against the ropes. Usually a fighters eyes will shut or his head will bob down. But what happenes is, the camera focuses in on Will Smiths face and goes to slow motion, showing where Alis eyes were focused. Right on Liston. His eyes weren't on anyone else but Liston. This is the focus of the film, to get inside Ali's head. Watch the Foreman fight, you hear Ali's thoughts, he is talking to himself and drowning out everyother sound out there. The guy who said the movie had bad sound editing, he wasn't thinking. It was done that way on purpose, because alot of the times when the sound was where you could barely hear it, it was that way because the director doesn't want you to pay attention to the sound, he wants you to pay attention to whats surrounding Ali and how he reacts.
This movie does an extremely good job at what it is trying to portray. But people who dont like it are to closed minded to relize this.

Rating:
Summary: ALI
Review: Ali was a great movie to see! I would have rated it a 5 star film but the all music no diolauge scenes were too long and too frequent. Will Smith did a fantastic job as Ali and deserved the nomination for best actor that he recieved.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining movie, Terrible DVD
Review: Michael Mann take on the enviable task of covering the life of one of most colorful characters of this century. There simply have been simply too many noteworthy events in Ali's life to get through all of it in 2 hours. I for one am glad that Mann and company attempted the impossible. This story was too important to have never been told. The DVD is an entirly different story however. There is no excuse to leave all of the extras off of the DVD version! I'm that this is simply a ploy by Sony to generate double sales for this movie. One for the release version and then a "directors cut" extended version!

Rating:
Summary: A better story
Review: I love boxing and I love watching boxing movies whether they be about a real perons (Jake LaMotta) or made up boxers(Rocky Balboa). Whether Robert DeNiro or Sly Stallone is acting, the story and acting are all great.

In this story we have the knockout king Muhammad Ali played
by the Prince of Bel Air himself, Will Smith. This is one of the greatest acting jobs I have ever seen almost anyone do. The resemblance and the heart was there, only in wasn't in a very good story. There was no begining (except for the begining of Ali),and no end (except for the end of Clay).

I feel they should have focused more on his boxing career and his life more in the film. I was disapointed only in the fact that the focus was mainly on his affairs (wifes) and his religion (no disrespect). If I am watching a movie about one of the greatest boxers of all time, I want to see the before, the middle, and the after. Before he was famous, during his rise and boxing career, and after from the last fight to what happend after. That needs to be in there, especialy if it is about Muhammad Ali. The casting was perfect and the permance by the actors was realy magnificent.
19/M