In 1964, a brash new pro boxer, fresh from his olympic gold medal victory, explodes on to the scene, Cassius Clay. Bold and outspoken, he cuts an entirely new image for African American's in sport with his proud public self confidence with his unapologetic belief that he is the greatest boxer of all time. To his credit, he sets out to prove that with his highly agile and forceful style soon making him a formidable boxer who soon claims the heavyweight championship. His personal life is no less noteworthy with his allegiance to the Nation of Islam, his friendship with the controversial Malcolm ... X and his abandonment of his slave name in favour of Muhammad Ali stirring up controversy. Yet, at the top of his game, both Ali's personal and professional lives face the ultimate test with the military draft rules are changed, making him eligible for military induction during the Vietnam War. Despite the fact that he could easily agree to a sweetheart deal that would have meant an easy tour of duty for himself, Ali refuses to submit on principle to cooperate in an unjust war for a racist nation that treated his people so poorly. The cost of that stand is high as he finds himself unable to legally box in his own country while his case is contested in court. What follows is a battle for a man who would sacrifice so much for what he believes in and a comeback that would cement his legend as one of the great sports figures of all time.Read moreLess
And you thought "Wild Wild West" was bad...
For a biopic of the life of someone idolised for his fleet of foot, pace, flair and razor-like wit, "Ali" plays more like a parody of his life.
There's an inadvertent irony to this film which is slow moving, what boxing match reconstructions I watched were banal and tiresome. I felt punch-drunk my self and I hadn't even moved from my chair.
To be fair I only watched the first half hour of this film but by this stage I'd already nodded off three times and thought, "Jumpin' Joe Frazier, there's another 2 hours of this tripe".
Ali opens with a shot of Will Smith as a bundled-up 22-year-old Cassius Clay doing late-night roadwork in preparation for his 1964 heavyweight title fight with Sonny Liston. It's an arresting visual, of a lonely sphinx in sweats, and it tells you a lot about why a film that is as impressive as this one ends up less satisfying than it should.
That shot is part of a bravura opening sequence that intercuts flashbacks from Clay's childhood???having to ride in the back of buses, being mesmerized by newspaper photographs of a lynched man, watching his father paint a blond, blue-eyed Christ in a religious mural???with a captivating live performance by singer Sam Cooke (D...
Ali
"...ALI is a breakthrough for director Michael Mann....His overwhelming love of its subject will turn audiences into exuberant, thrilled fight crowds..."
Ali
There's no faulting Will Smith's remarkable impersonation of Muhammad Ali — from his punchy vocal mannerisms to his impressive physical appearance — and his performance here earned him his first Oscar nomination. Nor can you underestimate the epic scale and historical authenticity of director Michael Mann's biopic. It begins with the then Cassius Clay winning the heavyweight title in 1964, then follows his conversion to Islam, his relationship with Malcolm X, his refusal to fight in Vietnam, and concludes with his monumental 1974 comeback against George Foreman — the legendary "Rumble in the Jungle". Where it falls down is in the lack of fresh insight i...
Ali
A dynamic performance from Will Smith holds together a somewhat diffuse account of the ten most significant years in Ali's boxing career, but there's too much pussy-footing around his life outside the ring.
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