"I AM the greatest!"

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2004)

Ambitious biopic about famous boxer Muhammad Ali, chronicling the high points and low points of both his personal and professional career - his many boxing triumphs, his troubled relationships with the women he loved, his refusal to fight in Vietnam ("Man,I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."), his religious beliefs, problems with his family, etc.

At times he looks like he's doing little more than a stiff impersonation of Ali, but Will Smith is mostly pretty good in the role of the famed boxer with a big mouth who got away with having the big mouth because he had the goods to back it up. There's also good acting from Jon Voight as Ali's most avid newsman follower Howard Cosell and Mario Van Peebles in the role of Malcolm X.
The boxing scenes are also well done, even when you know that Ali/Smith is going to come out on top. There are times when looking at the film I almost felt like I was watching "Black Hawk Down" in terms of the film's lighting.