I'm a big boxing fan and probably my favorite boxer is Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Clay). I think we can all agree he's the greatest boxer who ever stepped into the ring so I was interested to see this biopic. Not only did I like it, but it really exceeded my expectations.

Will Smith in the title role caught me off guard. Smith isn't the first choice that comes to mind when I think of candidates who could play The Greatest, but he passes with flying colors. He's gives an amazing mesmerizing performance. He brings gravity and balance to Ali the character personality and Ali the man without falling into parody. Ali isn't an easy role to pull off, but…

Part of my Michael Mann Marathon.

This is easily one of the best movie openings ever. The energy is riveting. The music builds and builds. We are introduced to a theme of loneliness, segregation, doubting faith in a white savior (jesus), and that Ali fights his real battles outside of the ring. The cuts are perfect, hinting at what Ali fights in his head while he trains. The introduction of characters is wonderful, and it is no surprise that Mann uses music in a masterful way to both compliment and drive the images. Mann establishes his visual language also. Closeups where a face takes up half the screen with the background in low focus, odd angles for establishing shots, slow…

Sports Bio, Will Smith, John Voight, Jamie Foxx, Mario Van Peenles

I watched this movie when it first came to the theaters I believe it was a Christmas day movie. I'm really glad I rewatched this since I am almost 12 years older now, I feel I was able to enjoy and appreciate the movie much more in my late 30's now. Will Smith and John Voight shine in each of their roles, Will being Cassius Clay/Muhhammad Ali and John as Howard Cosell. I respect an actor that dives into the character, Will beefed up and put on 35lbs to play Ali and even offered to do the role free if the movie went over budget. Both actors do great…

Everyone knows that Muhammad Ali is one of the most colorful and entertaining men in the history of boxing. It seemed only a matter of time before a biography was made of the man and with Will Smith starring and Michael Mann behind the camera it seemed like Ali was going to be a sure fire hit and make a killing come awards time.

Smith was great as Ali as they follow his early boxing career, his legiance to the Nation of Islam, his friendship with Malcolm X, changing his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and more. Although I have heard some people say that Ali isn't one of Smith's best roles because all he does is impersonate…

Part of my Michael Mann Marathon.

This is easily one of the best movie openings ever. The energy is riveting. The music builds and builds. We are introduced to a theme of loneliness, segregation, doubting faith in a white savior (jesus), and that Ali fights his real battles outside of the ring. The cuts are perfect, hinting at what Ali fights in his head while he trains. The introduction of characters is wonderful, and it is no surprise that Mann uses music in a masterful way to both compliment and drive the images. Mann establishes his visual language also. Closeups where a face takes up half the screen with the background in low focus, odd angles for establishing shots, slow…

While it loosely follows the conventional structure of biopics, Mann’s impression of the boxer deemed the world’s ‘greatest’ is often bitingly honest, Ali shown to be an arrogant adulterer with a nasty streak about him. And yet the film still feels compromised, the attempts to associate Ali’s Islamic commitments to the people of Zaire confusing given that the characterisation of the man suggests his approach towards religion was a hypocritical burden to all around him. It might be that I’m reading this wrongly, or that the film simply doesn’t handle this element of Ali well, but it does feel like the late switch to Africa leading up to the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ tries to reconcile the behaviour of Ali…

Phenomenal. Michael Mann, uninterested in the familiarity of political, racial, religious and personal struggle, replaces these common values with a contagious, absolutely absorbing atmosphere. The life of Muhammed Ali was an interesting choice for a film, but a more interesting one is this, the carefully highlighted universality of the champ's context in history, his approach to life as the definition of self-interest and the flawed reasoning of events in a changing world. Every vibrant motion of mood change, every dizzying shaky-cam, every subtlety, every blinking bluntness, every vision, every sound and every lick of this film speaks and speaks worlds louder than the script, which feels like moot starting point, a blueprint from which to work - but never to…

I'm a big boxing fan and probably my favorite boxer is Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Clay). I think we can all agree he's the greatest boxer who ever stepped into the ring so I was interested to see this biopic. Not only did I like it, but it really exceeded my expectations.

Will Smith in the title role caught me off guard. Smith isn't the first choice that comes to mind when I think of candidates who could play The Greatest, but he passes with flying colors. He's gives an amazing mesmerizing performance. He brings gravity and balance to Ali the character personality and Ali the man without falling into parody. Ali isn't an easy role to pull off, but…