I Agree With Most Of The Critics

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2003)

As always the problem of getting someone to play Muhammed Ali is that they don`t have the charisma to play the great man , hell not even Ali could play himself convincingly in THE GREATEST so I didn`t think Will Smith star of weak Summer blockbusters like WILD WILD WEST or the MIB films was going to be much cop in the title role
I do think Michael Mann is a good director and is rather underrated due to the fact he started out in television . Mann does bring realism to the fight scenes in ALI , they`re maybe not as good as the ones in RAGING BULL but they still pack a punch ( Sorry couldn`t resist that one ) , compare the ring scenes here to the laughably bad ones seen in the ROCKY movies and you`ll notice a big difference . My only criticism of Mann in this film is that a few of the scenes outside the ring lack narritive drive with one of the characters saying something to another character and having the camer a linger too long on the characters moody look , but this is a minor flaw
The serious flaw is something everyone else has pointed out and is something that I quickly noticed while watching ALI - The script is too overlong . I hadn`t read the readers comments untill I sat down to write this review so my views weren`t prejudiced but most of the reviewers are spot on , fight scenes feature as do politics , religion , Malcolm X , government spooks and Ali`s marital life and I can`t help thinking the whole film would have worked better if it had just focussed on Ali`s boxing career . As it is ALI isn`t a film I`d watch over and over again like RAGING BULL
It does have a positive point in its favour - The cast . If I hadn`t known what part Jon Voight was playing I`d have sat through the film wondering when he was going to turn up because he`s totally unrecognisable but he`s very good in his role . Ron Silver is almost unrecognisable but good as is Mario Van Peebles , but best of all is Will Smith as Muhammed Ali . Okay I could nit pick but that would be unkind and pedantic so all I`ll say is Smith deserved his Oscar nod