Ali

December 9, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 157 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Never in my life have a I see a movie in more dire need of a good editor. Ali is over two and a half hours long and feels every minute of it. Do not blame Will Smith, he nails his portrayal of The Greatest. But Michael Mann really failed to capture the charisma and excitement that was Muhammad Ali.

Ali

If you do not know who Ali is already, first off, what the heck are you doing on THIS site? Every red blooded heterosexual male knows who he is. If you do not, stop reading this review now and skip this movie. It’s tough enough to stay awake through at some points for a boxing fan. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to sit through this with no previous knowledge of the man.

The movie covers a decade of Ali’s life starting with him winning the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston as Cassius Clay and concluding with him regaining the title from George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. But the movie doesn’t spend all that much time in the ring. Instead we’re shown Muhammad become part of the Nation of Islam, his refusal to be inducted into the Army when drafted and subsequent conviction accompanied by having his title taken away and being banned from boxing for 3 years.

The problem here isn’t with the information presented. And it sure isn’t from the performances. Will Smith is dead-on in his portrayal of Ali’s speech pattern and wit, and he also does a believable job in the ring. Smith obviously bulked up and trained extensively for this role. It is a shame it is wasted in this film. The film jumps around without ever really letting us get to know any of the characters. Even Ali himself doesn’t give us much insight, we just kind of follow him as he goes through the events in the film. The mood is very murky, which does not really fit the extravagent ultra charismatic personality of the real Muhammad Ali in his prime.

The boxing sequences aren’t bad, but again they do not really tell the stories of each of those fights very well. We’re just kinda in the ring watching what happens. And the action is no where near on the par of classics such as Rocky or Raging Bull. Heck, they’re not even close to Ron Shelton’s Play It To The Bone.

Our real gripe is the editing. This flick is long, really long. Yet there are many sequences in the film that just go on and on and on for no apparent reason. It really feels like we’re watching a DVD with all of the deleted and shortened scenes left in! The scary thing is there are at least two scenes in the trailer which were not in the film, so we suspect the DVD is going to make the movie even longer. And that’s a scary thought.

Bottom line this movie feels “undercooked”, we’d like to send it back to spend a bit more time in the oven. With a great cast all giving great performances such as we have here, and the movie being about such a great character as Ali, there’s no reason this film shouldn’t rock. But it doesn’t and in fact comes up pretty lame. Smith’s performance is the only thing that keeps me from totally trashing this one.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 2 Stars, Drama, Giancarlo Esposito, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, R, Theatrical, Will Smith