Will Smith as Muhammad Ali? What? Who the hell came up with that one? Is that some sort of a joke?
Years ago, I remember watching a music video by Will Smith (back then, he was "The Fresh Prince," of "DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince"). It was called "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson." This was back when Tyson was a seemingly invincible machine. He wouldn't have his first humiliating loss (by James "Buster" Douglas) until shortly after the music video was released. Prior to that knockout, however, Mike Tyson was considered to be possibly the best boxer ever. The song and the video are about how Will Smith thinks that he can beat Mike Tyson. In the video (which is very funny, by the way), Tyson and Smith are in the ring duking it out. Just looking at Will Smith without a shirt was funny, especially when compared to Mike Tyson's huge but compact physique. So when I heard that Will Smith was cast as Muhammad Ali, I thought of that video and I figured that there was no way he could do it. Well, he did. I still think that he was miscast, but despite that, he managed to do a very convincing job of portraying the legendary Muhammad Ali.
"Ali" is not the life story of Muhammad Ali. You shouldn't walk into the movie thinking that. It's basically the story of what happened during the crucial years after his first significant fight (when he beat Sonny Liston for the title) and before his last significant fight ("The Rumble in the Jungle" when he regained his title against George Foreman, a man who's now making millions off of a grill that bears his name). Even though this only covers about ten years of Ali's life, the movie seems way too short... and the movie is almost three hours long. Too many important pieces are missing. For example, if you were to watch the movie knowing nothing about Muhammad Ali, you would think, based on the movie, that Ali fought Joe Frazier only one time, and he lost. In actuality, he fought Joe Frazier three times, winning two of those three matches, and all three are considered to be some of the best boxing matches ever. To be fair, though, there IS a lot to cover during that period in his life, and it would be impossible to squeeze it all into a single film.
I'm not sure how accurate the movie is, but unless you're Muhammad Ali himself, there's no way to know. It's possible that the movie painted him as a bit more angelic than he really is, but that's to be expected. I'm sure that there are plenty of people who would argue over the movie's accuracy, but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to tell you whether or not I was entertained, and I was. Although, it's a very flawed movie.
As I wrote earlier, Will Smith is very good as Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali. However, the one who really stands out to me is Jamie Foxx (he's a comedic actor, but he was great in "Any Given Sunday," which was a serious role). I really like him when he plays non-comedic roles. Actually, he IS pretty funny in this movie, I just wouldn't call it a comedic role. Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie's father... he was really good as Franklin D. Roosevelt in "Pearl Harbor") does a great job as Howard Cosell, and he's helped by the convincing makeup. Ron Silver is really good as Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, but it's not a very meaty role. Mario Van Peebles (the villain in the HORRIBLE "Highlander III"... also, he directed "Panther" and "New Jack City") plays Malcolm X. He does a really good job, but it's impossible to avoid comparisons to the performance that Denzel Washington gave in the Spike Lee movie. Poor Mario. He does a good job, and he actually looks more like Malcolm than Denzel does, but Denzel... Denzel's the man. Still, Mario Van Peebles gave a good, admirable performance. Other really good performances include Jeffrey Wright (played the title role in the biopic, "Basquiat"... was great in the recent "Shaft" remake) as Howard Bingham, and Mykelti Williamson (he was "Bubba" in "Forrest Gump") as Don King. There is also good acting by Jada Pinkett Smith (Will Smith's real life wife), Michael Michele ("Dr. Cleo Finch" in the TV series, "E.R."), Joe Morton ("Miles Bennett Dyson" in "Terminator 2"... recurring character in the TV series, "Smallville"), and Giancarlo Esposito ("Buggin' Out" in "Do the Right Thing"), who plays Ali's father.
"Ali" was directed by Michael Mann ("The Insider," "Heat," "The Last of the Mohicans," "Manhunter"), and I think he did an okay job, but not a great job. Way too many things were left out, and a lotta times, the music overpowers the movie in a very distracting way. The boxing scenes are excellent, though. Probably because just about every boxer in the movie is played by an actual professional boxer. Well, except for Will Smith, of course. As for the writing, the story was written by Gregory Allen Howard, who wrote "Remember the Titans." The screenplay was by Stephen J. Rivele & Christopher Wilkinson (they wrote "Nixon" together) and Eric Roth (who wrote "Forrest Gump") & Michael Mann (Michael Mann is involved in the writing with all of his movies... he wrote "The Insider" with Eric Roth). I have no idea what to say about the original, unabridged script. If the script, as originally written, was like the movie that I saw, then it was horrible. There are huge holes, a lotta very important things are left out, and some things are brought up, and then quickly ignored, never to be brought up again. But I don't think that the original script was like that. I think that the script was a lot bigger and more ambitious. It's just that ultimately, a lotta things ended up having to be cut from the movie, or maybe even from the script itself. But then the complaint would be that the script was too long. Even with a mere ten years of Muhammad Ali's life, there's so much to cover.
Despite the many flaws, I enjoyed the movie. I wasn't bored at all, and there are a lotta good things about it. I guess it just doesn't work as a movie. Perhaps it would work better as a mini-series, or better yet, one of those long mini-series' that HBO sometimes has, like "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Band of Brothers." As a movie, it doesn't work as well, though. There's simply too much story to tell.
Scale of 1-10: 7