Moments Of Being The Greatest

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2002)

The best thing in Ali is the acting. Will Smith, Jon Voight, Jamie Foxx, Mario Van Peebles, Mykelti Williamson; everyone in the cast gives a great performance.
The worst thing is the length of the film. It goes for nearly three hours and it drags (it felt like Lord Of The Rings went for two hours) due to some long, boring sequences. We want to see Ali fight, or hear him launch verbal attacks at a press conference or finding out about some major incident in his lifetime. Instead we get to see Ali running around in Africa for nine minutes (which feels like twenty) and we suffer through pointless montage sequences which make no sense.
This had the makings of being another Raging Bull, but it just isn't as entertaining. Will Smith does carry some of the film, as you put up with the slow parts to see more of his performance. It also felt like parts of the movie wanted to deal more with Malcolm X or the Black Muslims than Ali himself. It needed more focus, quicker pacing and more character depth.