Stunk like a butterlfy, but 'Mann" floated like a bee!

Rating: 6/10 (13 May 2002)

The slogan of the new biopic `Ali' is  forget what you know. After seeing `Ali' it should be more like `forget what you saw'. The film's very lightweight screenplay & dreary story-line made me throw in the towel halfway through the movie. Even though the film is based on one imperative part of Muhammad Ali's courageous life, it did not develop his character in full by showing his childhood and his eventual knockdown of obtaining Parkinson's Disease. However, I must vote a unanimous decision on Director Michael Mann's boxing sequences direction. His one-two punch direction style of slow motion shots and integrating close-ups were a winning combination. Michael's direction `mannerisms' do get you `hooked' into the film a bit. I also do commend Will Smith as Ali who flied as a butterfly with his impersonating dialogue and Jon Voight as Howard Cossell who stung like a bee with his masterful mimicry. Even though the film as well-acted and its boxing sequences were wonderfully directed, it was the screenplay's deficient technicalities that resulted in `Ali' losing by a tko (technical knockout). *** Average