Smith's a knockout, points lost elsewhere

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2002)

Fancy foot (and mouth) work from Will Smith holds the attention, but this could have been a better bout had it ended a couple of rounds earlier. The Nation of Islam stuff is murky, the score is too intrusive too often, and we never really get to witness the charisma and grandstanding that made the man. Did he really only turn on the personality for an audience? I doubt it. Fighting apart - and the fight scenes are very well done - there's nothing iconic about the Ali up on screen. A biopic that offers feints and jabs rather than any real piledrivers.