"Ali"ke Malcolm X, The Hurricane, as an oppressed black flic

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2002)

This film is exactly what happens when you have a huge budget, lots of big names, and a blatantly obvious desire to win an Academy Award: a synthetic, insincere rip off of previous Academy Award nominees.
Let's face it. This has all been done before and better. The big historical scope, the politics, and the conspiracy thoeries surrounding Malcolm X were done better and in a less exploitative manner in Spike Lee's Malcolm X. And the "oppressed by the white man" boxer gimmick was hit on in The Hurricane just a couple of years ago. In fact, think of the first ten minutes of this picture with Ali training and reminiscing on his youth (oh no! Whitey oppresses me! I hate the system! Now I'm an angry black man! Look out boxing world!) and compare to the first ten minutes of The Hurricane. Same exact thing.
I could go into serious detail scene by scene but why bother? If you have any sense of cinematic memory you'll see how obvious it all is.
The fact is, that this picture is just a cheap vehicle for Will Smith to try to win an academy award. The Legend of Bagger Vance (aka Driving Matt Damon) was Smith trying to get the soft Uncle Tom style of Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy and this flick is a cheap effort to get the angry black man of Denzel in Malcolm X and The Hurricane. It's so obvious it's insulting.
And please, let's be honest: Will Smith does not look or sound like Muhammed Ali. He looks like Will Smith doing a cocktail party immitation of Ali. His performance is pathetic at best. The same crazy, over the top garbage you see in all of his pictures. Example:
Ali: I'm going to kick your ass! (to Joe Frazier)
Mike Lowry: I'm going to kick your ass! (to drug dealers in Bad Boys)
Agent J: I'm going to kick your ass! (to some three headed alien)
James West: I'm going to kick your ass! (in Wild, Wild West)
I'm glad Denzel won this year for Training Day, maybe not the best picture in the world but at least a sincere acting effort. And Washington is an actor not a marketing gimmick like Smith. I heard Will Smith left the awards for personal reasons before Best Actor was announced. I bet a million dollars he knew he'd lose for this piece of garbage and didn't want to look like a sucker before a national audience. He knows his staying power is limited. In a few years he'll fade like Eddie Murphy did, reduced to Dr. Doolittle and Nutty Professor pictures.