Well, not bad ....

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2002)

About 25 minutes in, I thought the movie should have been titled "Ali + X".... or "Ali + X + Cooke." The Sam Cooke stuff at the beginning didn't serve any purpose for me; I missed the context, I guess.
I thought the acting was good. Surprisingly, Smith vanished into the role, in my opinion. For months now, I figured I wouldn't be able to see past "The Fresh Prince" wearing boxing gloves. Jamie Foxx and Jon Voight were quite good, too.
But the storyline seemed to dwell too long on an abbreviated story. I would've liked more on the stuff before 1964 and even more so the stuff after the "Rumble in the Jungle." The movie had a somber mood to it, so the decline of The Greatest would have been nice to see. I didn't need to see so much of Malcolm X -- I've read his autobiography and think the connection with Ali could have been made in shorter fashion.
Ah well, I didn't expect anything outstanding. I got just what I expected, so what right do I have to complain? It was worth my time, although the lines for Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings added significant time to my box office wait!