Ali and the Music Mann

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2001)

It's a shame. Will Smith finally gets a chance to show us his acting chops, rather impressively I might add, but his performance is diluted by a lackluster script and shoddy direction. Michael Mann has the ability and talent to create engrossing films. His last two directorial outings ("Heat", "The Insider") are both perfect examples of how focused and intriguing his work can be. However, he completely missed the boat on this one. Perhaps "Ali" was too great of a task for him, or maybe the studio was leaning on him to hurry up and finish the picture. Who knows? But "Ali" plays like a film that was hastily put together. Any person who doesn't know Muhammad Ali will surely walk out of this picture still wondering who the man truly was. The fight scenes were decent enough, although I have yet to see fight scenes as beautifully brutal as that of "Raging Bull". The supporting characters were hit and miss. Jamie Foxx and Jon Voight were excellent choices as Drew 'Bundini' Brown and Howard Cosell. Mario Van Peebles and Albert Hall as Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad didn't seem quite right. The relationship between Ali and Malcolm X seemed disjointed. How did they meet? What truly drew Ali to the Nation of Islam? Why was so much attention given to Malcolm X away from Muhammad Ali? For a while I began to think that I was watching a watered down version of Spike Lee's excellent biopic.
The most distracting part of this film is Mann's constant use of what seemed like musical interludes. We go from music to dialogue to music back to dialogue. I never felt like I could sit back and actually watch the characters interact because at any moment we would be drawn into another mini-music video. Ali was rhythmic enough with his moves inside the ring and his mouth outside of it. He didn't need the help of a sixties soundtrack. Music can often make or break a movie. The overall film suffers because time that should have been used to illuminate a man was instead used to bore the viewer with a variety of overlong musical vignettes.
I give the movie a 6 out of 10. Hurray for Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and Jon Voight. Better luck next time for the Music Mann.