Inaccurate, among other faults

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 2002)

Since this movie was just fictitious on so many things I do know about, I did not believe anything it said about things I didn't know about. Mann has taken rather severe liberties with plain, empirical, historical facts--for instance, the simple and egregious matter of putting Howard Cossell into the commentator role in the Liston fight (Steve Ellis, in fact, was the broadcaster), or inserting into the Liston fight an incident (Ali's being unable to see temporarily)from a much, much later fight--one of the Frazier fights, I think.
And Will Smith is much less charismatic and entertaining than Ali. This is a joyless film, in which Ali's natural wit, and his world-class mastery of the role of raconteur, hardly appear.
Skip it. You will only like it if you know no real history about the subject, and then you'll come away thinking you know things that just aren't true.