Will Smith Should Have Won The Oscar

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2016)

Plot In A Paragraph: Focusing on sports legend Mohammad Ali during the years 1964 to 1974.
For this reviewer, Ali was overlooked and undervalued at the time of its release. As despite Will Smith's star power, the movie didn't hit the $100 million mark at the box office, a rarity for a Smith lead movie in those days!! (As even Wild Wild West crosses the $100 million barrier) and despite two Oscar nominations, I feel it was ignored, and should have had more.
THE FIRST 10 minutes of Ali are great!! Time hopping and covering a lot of ground all at once. Set to the vocal delight of Sam Cooke, we see Cassius Clay, Jr. taking a night time run being harassed by a pair of cops, then he's a child, walking toward the "coloreds only" section of a bus, then we cut back to Clay in the gym on the speed bag, then back to the child watching his father paint a blonde haired, blue eyes Jesus, before we get to the the weigh-in with Sonny Liston, where he delivers his "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" line, dominating proceedings and sparring with reporter's. It is probably the best opening 20 minutes to any Mann directed movie.
I think it was a wise decision to focus on the years the movie does as we see him become champ by defeating Liston, deepen his commitment to Islam, change his name from Cassius Clay to Mohammed Ali, lose the title by refusing induction into the army, and regain the title in the rumble in the jungle against George Forman.
As a sports biopic, it's light on action, and it actually devoted as much time (if not more) on what happens before and after the fights, as what it does on the fights. It's not a feel good flick either, the movie doesn't fall into a lot of the trappings of this type of movie, and at times, it's not afraid of showing Ali in an unflattering light. His troubled relationships with his wives, father and his struggles with the Muslim community are all covered in detail. Which could explain its lack of success at the box office upon release.
Will Smith is amazing here!! In Mann, he found a director who could finally help him deliver a performance nobody thought he had in him. Surprisingly the movie doesn't play to Smith's strong suits, such as his comic timing or his fast talking, quick with a one liner persona, that wasn't so different from Ali's. Instead we get a thoughtful, dialled in dramatic performance that I think should have won him the Oscar that year. I totally forge I'm watching Smith, and all I see is Ali. For me it seems the bigger the star, the better the performance Mann seems to get.
The full movie is ridiculously well cast. Jon Voight, (an actor I adore, and was also nominated, and again I think should have won) or his performance as Howard Cosell. Jamie Foxx, Ron Silver and Jeffrey Wright
It's not perfect, it could use a bit of editing to sort out some pacing issues, things such as the whole Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) and Martin Luthor King (LeVar Burton) subplots could have gone. Some bits seem drawn out, whilst others seem rushed over. Like when he goes for a morning run in Zaire, it feels like he is running longer than Forest Gump did!!
Ali grossed $58 million to end the year the 41st highest grossing movie of 2001.
I'd rate the movie an 8/10, but I'm giving an extra point for Smith's performance.