I still don't know anything....

Rating: 2/10 (24 January 2002)

I remember when this film was being hyped and promoted. The trailer seemed ubiquitous while perpetually appearing at the beginning of every film I had chosen to see in a span of perhaps a month of two. The first couple of times the trailer played, I thought to myself that it didn't really look all that appealing. In the next few weeks, I saw the same commercial and for some reason this time it was intriguing. How that was possible, I wasn't quite sure. But when I further examined the two trailers, I finally realized what was different.
It's amazing how music can affect you. One trailer was filled with soft playing, gospel like music. The next trailer assaulted our senses with hyped-up, outlandish hip-hop music. You can guess which trailer had what music. I mention this because it just goes to show you that when something is bad, it needs the marketing genius' that sell these products to us to discover a remedy instantly, hence the second trailer. I am a firm believer that every movie should be given a chance, which is why I see films like Gosford Park, Tea With Musollini and Ali. Every once in a while you discover diamonds in the ruff like Chocolat, more times than can be counted in one sitting, you get a film like Ali. Sometimes a first impression is the correct one.
The tag line for Ali advises us to forget everything we know about the man. Okay, I did that. Now maybe it is just me, but if a tag line tells me to do that then there must be a reason for it. Perhaps they are going to shock me with facts that have been uncovered that have never been made public. Oliver Stone is the master of that, Steven Spielberg can also lay claim to this theory. But Michael Mann? He has some work to do.

I am still waiting for the big eye opener. I have forgotten all that I know, now shock me.....
Ali is almost lugubrious in it's presentation of Muhammed Ali, the man. It takes a subject and a man that we all greatly admired and almost comically turns him into a caricature of his legend. I can honestly tell you that I walked out of Ali A) not knowing anything more about the man than I originally thought I did and B) disliking him more for who he seemed to be. Ali always came across as a man who marched to the beat of his own drum. A stoic, proud and principled man that made decisions based on what he thought was right. After seeing this film, that couldn't seem further from the truth. Will Smith's Ali appears to be puppet like as he gets swayed by Muslim beliefs and then betrayed by them only to be swayed once again. And this is the legend that we all lionized? What a sham!
Besides the story of Ali, the man, the story of Ali, the film, is really quite hollow. The script is practically infinitesimal and the more you watch and wait patiently to become enlightened with something, the more disappointed you are. Like a previous reviewer stated, I also came to this film to see Ali run his mouth and to get in the ring. Smith, while turning in a good performance, is denied greatness simply because the script doesn't give enough to work with. I read somewhere that the film is supposed to be defined by Ali's ethereal, almost dream-like run through Africa. Yet this run lasts for what seems like an eternity and when he is finished, I couldn't tell you what it is that he discovered about Africa or himself that he or we didn't already know. Sly's run through Philadelphia just before his big fight with Apollo was probably what this film was trying to emulate. And it did a very poor job of that. This is a microcosm of what is wrong with the picture. Too many intangible and uneven scenes and not enough insight and examination into one of the most famous men in the world. Hey, if you want to see how many women Ali bedded in his lifetime, then by all means, go see Ali. If you want to know why he became a Muslim or why his best friend, Drew Brown, turned to alcohol and drugs or how he spent all of his money or the amusing relationship Ali had with Howard Cosell or even more about the fight with George Foreman, then this is the wrong film for you.
Michael Mann really has a small resume for such an acclaimed and respected director. He was lauded for his work on The Insider and he managed to pull off Heat, with Kilmer, DeNiro and Pacino. I don't know the man personally and I am not saying he is a terrible director, but I just don't think he seems to grasp how to be poignant with his use of such highly regarded situations like Ali and the tobacco industries problem. The Insider, I believe, was a troubled film mainly because of Mann's direction. Perhaps his forte is gratuitous action and violence and perhaps he is not well suited to direct something that is supposed to be a great film like the one's he has done recently. And who knows, maybe it is just me. But Ali is quite a failure in my eyes.
3 out of 10 -- Will Smith is good but beyond his impersonation of the man, there is really not much to like or be inspired with in this film. Most who have seen this have taken umbrage with it. And calling this a classic film is more than just a little hyperbolic. It is not even a well made film.