Ali
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Movie Reviews of Ali
Movie Review: No biopic can possibly do him justice
Summary: 3 Stars
Muhammad Ali was so much bigger than life that any biopic is likely to have come up short. But to those of us who grew up watching Ali in his prime, this film is a real disappointment.Director Michael Mann is a highly talented director with films like "Heat", "The Insider" and "Last of the Mohicans" to his credit. Yet, in this film he takes the wrong tack and clutters it with boring details and excessive focus on racial issues that were ancillary to the life of a very exciting boxer and a dynamic showman.
To do justice to Ali's entire life, you would have to make three films. One for the boxing, one to look behind the scenes of a complicated man, and one to chronicle his interaction with the Nation of Islam and the civil rights implications of his refusal to be inducted into the army. The most interesting of the three are the first two. Yet, Mann decides to give us the first and third elements with the greatest emphasis on the civil rights angle, which is clearly the least interesting aspect of Ali despite the controversy. It seems that Mann is on a crusade to impress us with what a central figure Ali was in the civil rights movement and that his boxing was secondary to that role. Mann wants us to believe that Ali was a civil rights leader who just happened to be a boxer, when in reality he was first and foremost an outstanding boxer with a flamboyant and arrogant attitude and a rapier wit.
Mann completely neglects the element that he presents so superbly in "The Insider", the character development of the main character. In "The Insider", Mann drills deep into Wigand's (Russell Crowe) psyche and turns Bergman (Al Pacino) inside out. In "Ali", Mann glosses over Ali's motivations and concentrates more on Ali as part of a larger mosaic rather than the fascinating character he really was. He only gives a hint of the close relationship between Ali and Cosell, which could have been a film by itself.
The boxing scenes were well choreographed, but overly long with too much emphasis on too few fights. Ali was one of the most active heavyweight champion ever, sometimes fighting four or five times per year, but from this film it seems like he had only four fights in his career. We didn't need to see 15 minutes of George Foreman pounding Ali against the ropes to get the idea.
Will Smith does an excellent job of portraying Ali. Though he sometimes misses on Ali's rapid fire poetic cadence, he hits the mark a high percentage of the time and delivers a very realistic portrayal. In the ring, he does a passable job of imitating some of Ali's more notable moves like the "Ali Shuffle" and his penchant for dodging punches with his hands dangling by his side. But no one can come close to imitating that lightning jab.
As much acclaim as Smith got for this role, John Voight steals the show as Howard Cosell. Though the physical resemblance is not that great, Voight's command of Howard's movements and speech patterns is nothing short of phenomenal.
One thing that is very disappointing is that the DVD has absolutely no bonus material. This is a topic that could have provided hours of background material and original footage and there wasn't even a featurette.
Overall, this film is entertaining for those who never saw Ali fight, or bad mouth an opponent in a new conference. But for those of us who were lucky enough to see this brilliant athlete and flamboyant personality in his prime, this film never leaves the ground. I rated it a 6/10. For anyone interested in the real Muhammad Ali, see "Muhammad Ali - the Whole Story", a six hour documentary that will show you why no biopic can ever do him justice.
Movie Review: ALI------(** 1/2) of 4
Summary: 3 Stars
...Michael Mann's stirring adaptation of the Muhammad Ali saga is all common fallacy of appeal to force and circular reasoning. It ponders the all-too familiar cons of the struggling boxer, who is of course waiting to make it to the top (The Hurricane, Rocky). "Ali", despite its truthful references, is a grip-n-go satire of relationship, violence, and sports, ultimately leading up to the Final Fight of victory when Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali faces big-boy George in the ring.The purpose of bringing up circular reasoning and appeal-to-force with "Ali", is that the movie is focused more on the immitations and recreations of Ali's struggles and preparation for the fights. It presents well when Will Smith is voicing the champ and portraying the right actions. Other than the facial tissue, we are left with a brick wall. Where is the emotion? Where is the greatful side? Where is the smile? There are many installments of Ali's womanizing complications, his Muslim road of life, his neglection, and even his courtroom detour of possible imprisonment after refusal of fighting in the Vietnam War; great- but why is everything about his major struggles? Weren't there issues in his time where he would sit back and smile because of them? "Ali" never gives us a proven example, and the film forces us to withstand the vision of Michael Mann and the band of screenwriters that produced this biopic sling-shot.
Will Smith is the real champ here, doing his duties as an actor- making a legendary performance as Muhammad Ali. His words, his movements, his feel are all on the mark. The mere fact that his participating in this film deserves well praise alone will sustain his career for at least five years. His Oscar nomination was no surprise and was well deserved. He drives this drama where otherwise it could not have gone. However, this just isn't the right movie. This isn't "Ali". This is an exterior figure of Ali "The Champ". Where is the interior substance?
Jada Pinkett-Smith, Oscar Nominee- Jon Voight, and Jamie Foxx also co-star. Voight also received an Academy Award Nomination for his supporting performance as Howard Cosell- one I think was uncalled for. His face is pure plastic and make-up. His texture works for the film, but it isn't anything magnificent. If this is the case, I'd rather give Voight an Oscar for his supporting performance as President Roosevelt in "Pearl Harbor", where is face was again revised to reveal a stunning image of old Franklin.
To give "Ali" the benefit of the doubt, I will say that Will Smith and many cast members worked marvelously. It isn't the faults of the stars. It is the story that is corrupted with elongated sequences of boredom and neglection, overrunning the fact that is traveling too far, and yet not getting deep enough. The scenes that needed more depth went quickly, and the less important scenes (mainly exercises) seemed to go on for a long time.
For the emptiness I left the film with, I'm going to give it a Thumbs Down. There are means to its prescence, and there are those points where it is as if they're meaningless. "Ali" is the pure example of a fighter- but it comes off as neither champion nor engaging by any means.
** 1/2 of 4...
Movie Review: An interesting biopic not to be taken too seriously
Summary: 3 Stars
Mann's "Ali" isn't a masterpiece by any means, but the cinematic car crash I expected to see didn't happen either. People like Spike Lee and those actually involved with Ali's life (Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier) have ripped this movie to pieces and the critics have ridiculed it mercilessly.
A lot of movies about national icons fail simply because they tackle figures that are larger than can be captured in the medium of film (Hoffa, The Doors, etc), and this is undeniably one of them--one of the more enjoyable ones, though.
Mario Van Peebles does his best, and I think pretty well, at playing Malcolm X, whose abandonment by Ali is shown very clearly in this film.
Will Smith is as good as he can be playing Muhammad Ali himself, and he captures that strange, childlike Southern tough guy voice damn near perfectly. Jon Voight is just covered in makeup as Cosell; he's unrecognizable, and I'm surprised he didn't suffocate. To give him any credit for his performance would be as meaningless as saying one of the monkeys in "Planet of the Apes" did a great job.
Even through the more labored, musically constipated scenes (Mann must have realized this couldn't be a success and tried to compensate by drowning some of it out with blues music of the period) are boring to the point of exhaustion--Ali running, Ali on the bus, Ali hearing that famous expression actually invented by him in Zaire ("Ali, bumaye!") to the point where we want to tell the Africans to shut up--there's an honesty to this movie that took courage.
Mann does not cover up the warts of his subject. Ali as womanizer, a confused young man who could be cruel at times, a man driven largely by unconscious impulses, all the unpleasant aspects of this enigmatic figure are here for everyone to see. There is no hero worship here, which is surprising.
The boxing scenes are what I took serious issue with. The gloves used by Ali and his opponents look like balloons, about 18 inches long, and the actual blows look so fake that they suggest aborted attempts at violent hugs rather than punches. (The Jerry Quarry fight is the worst. He just starts bleeding spontaneously after a few taps.)
This does show the heroic side of Ali, however whimsical, very well. His refusal to fight in Vietnam even at the urges of the Nation of Islam is portrayed as what it was; a heroic act with dire, irreversible consequences. Could you see Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds doing that if it meant losing money? Probably not. The courtroom scenes and Ali's stoic refusal to submit show the spiritual side of this gigantic and ill-fated man.
Personally, I was glad that Mann stopped with Ali's last moment of real magic, the knockout of the ferocious George Foreman. I wouldn't doubt that this is what Ali wanted and I wouldn't want to seem them stuff Smith's cheeks and making him look like the cadaverous shell of himself that he was getting beaten on by bums like Trevor Berbick.
This is worth watching as a primer on Ali's life and an exciting movie.
Movie Review: Take it on the chin...
Summary: 3 Stars
I really wanted to LOVE this movie. Even all these years later, I felt the need to give it another try, hoping that I would fall in love with it. I have a fascination with boxing and biopics, and so this seemed to be right up my ally.
It wasn't.
I'll go ahead and get the good out of the way before I lay in to this film.
Will Smith is simply brilliant. The material may not always give him the best to work with (why is it that Smith's films constantly fail him?) but he really works magic with what he is given. From the mannerisms to the physicality to the voice to the sheer magnetic drive, Smith understands Ali and delivers a mesmerizing performance that never once feels like cheap mimicry. He is creating a character for us, despite the obvious `factual' draw. The rest of the cast is hit or miss (Voight is a miss, Foxx is a hit) but they don't really matter when you consider the fact that this is Smith's show. I also (somewhat) appreciate Michael Mann's direction here. There is a gritty realism that Mann brings to some of his films (`The Insider' is a perfect example of this), and he brings that here as well. I appreciate that Mann is NOT trying to be Oliver Stone (thankfully) but he does at times find himself hindered in areas that feel very much like Stone-failures here, but overall I think that his sharp direction (while no where near as polished as his work in `Heat' or even `Collateral') helps elevate `Ali' in areas where it certainly needs a boost.
And then, there is the bad.
Like I kind of already mentioned, Mann's direction is not without its flaws. I think it's more his vision than his actual direction, but he seems to get muddled in his own viewpoint. The film, at times, meanders around without any real solidified purpose. It just kind of hangs there. In fact, the film takes quite some time even to start establishing character, which was a poor decision, and then when it does attempt to build on WHO and WHAT Ali was, it can get a little uneven and lazy. What I love so much about biopics is that they can really flesh out the soul of someone you admire or at least harbor some interest in, but `Ali' comes off a tad scattered and unfocused to really do that.
In the end, `Ali' fails to really live up to the name. It needed a sharper edit and a tighter script to deliver a swifter punch in order to make it really do the subject justice. Smith is simply marvelous, and so one should see it for his engrossing performance, but don't expect this to deliver in a totally fulfilling sense.
Movie Review: Not Mann's best: Smith a disappointment
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite the enormous hype and promotion of Smith's "transformation" into Ali, I can only suppose that Mann -- who originally could not get the movie funded, especially after the tragically unsuccessful masterpiece The Insider-- was saddled with Smith as a condition of getting the money. After all, in Hollywood, such a large budget could not be banked on anyone but Smith or Denzel, and Denzel can't play every single black hero, since he always looks just like, well, Denzel. But Smith, without a doubt a likeable and charismatic actor, is all wrong for the part. Despite the hype of voice training, he doesn't get Ali's voice or cadence right at all. He's superb in the boxing scenes, and these are the best part of the film, but otherwise Smith's Ali lacks Ali's CHARM. When Smith does Ali's famous playing with a child, "Did I hurt you?" (pretending to have punched him too fast to be seen), we don't feel like laughing with Ali's humanity, we feel like Smith just made a bad, self-serving joke.For all of his poetic rants, Ali's gift (even in the ring) was his sphynx-like quality. Even through his throaty braggadocio, one was always left wondering: "Does he really understand boxing tactics, or is he just saying he does? Does he really understand Malcolm X's complicated African nationalism, or is he just mimicking?" Mann's script is underrated, precisely because it preserves these questions instead of other treatments which take one side or the other. But Smith walks through looking simultaneously cocky and bewildered, and that's not the same thing as the quiet and intense sphinx with the Mona Lisa smile, which was Ali.
At the same time, for all my admiration of Mann, one senses that he became too infatuated with historical accuracy for the mileau and boxing, and paid insufficient attention to the pacing (which is unweildy and inconsistent, so the audience yawns when they should be tense, poised for a climax) and to the supporting performances. Peebles is an embarrassment as Malcolm X, for example.
Mann was in a Catch-22. Ali is maybe the best biography of the twentieth-century, but there is no bankable Hollywood star appropriate for the role. Given that reality, he should not have made the movie. One senses Mann's integrity (shown in everything from Last of the Mohicans to Heat to The Insider) was somehow compromised here by his wishful thinking that he could make Smith into Ali so he could make the story.
The story is more engaging and thought-provoking in the dvd "When They Were Kings."