Ali is Forrest Gump

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2002)

The way Will Smith never loses that bewildered expression on his face. He's supposed to be playing a brash, arrogant, opinionated heavyweight black man but he might as well be playing an idiot savante. Even in the Zaire scenes, they keep doing close-ups on Will's "What the fudge is going on?" face. Even the delivery of the lines sounds bewildered, the way Will sort of trails off at the end of a proclamation. Listen carefully, and you'll see what I mean.

The way time shifts rapidly from one era to another, with historical events occuring at a rapid pace with Forrest, sorry, Ali having something to do with them, but not fully realizing it. "They shot that nice man," you half expect him to utter after Malcom gets gunned down on that podium.
When Ali beds Sonji, you just expect him to say "I'm not a smart man, but I sure know what love is."
The film feels incomplete. They could have cut short that lenghty first fight scene and focused on these aspects of Forrest's life.
His childhood in Louisville.
His amateur career, culminating in his winning of a gold medal.
His later years, following the Foreman fight.
His epic struggle with Frazier in Manila.
Hey Mann, this calls for a sequel.