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The movie begins when Cassius Clay (Will Smith) is just starting his professional
boxing career and follows through the struggles he has as he advances to
a contender and on to Heavyweight Champion, being stripped of the title
when he refused to be drafted into the army during the Vietnam War, and
coming back from nowhere with nothing after his boxing license was re-instated
- to once again be the "Greatest".
Along the way, we see the people that surrounded and affected Ali's life
- his friendship with Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles), his corner man Bundini
Brown (Jamie Fox), his wives Sonji Clay (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Belinda
Ali (Nona Gaye), and the warm relationship based on respect he had with
Howard Cosell (Jon Voight). The time span includes Ali's conversion to
the Islamic faith and how he changed his name from his "slave name"
to Muhammed Ali - and let the spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam,
Elijah Muhammad (Albert Hall), dictate his boxing career and his personal
life by having his son Herbert (Barry Shabaka Henley) as Ali's mentor/promoter/spiritual
guide/companion.
Ali may be the greatest boxer of all time, but Ali is not the greatest
movie. The opening montage is a jumble of pictures with the assumption
you know the story behind them - the constant cutting to Sam Cook singing
in the nightclub doesn't add anything to the film.
Will Smith doesn't give the performance of a lifetime. He bulked up for
the role, but not enough to look like a heavyweight boxer. He has the voice
down and some of the great lines that really sound like Ali, but he doesn't
have the presence that Ali exudes.
Jon Voight is unrecognizable as Howard Cosell. Great voice, but the make-up
is awful; the best part of this movie is the relationship between Cosell
and Ali.
The boxing is less than thrilling (although it does look realistic), and
there is too much of it. It's nice that Will can really take a punch and
he benefited from all that training, but it doesn't make for a better movie
- just a longer one.
There were some funny moments, mostly provided by Jamie Fox, but overall
this is a disappointing (and boring) movie.
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