Review of Ali (2001) by Ryan P — 06 Jan 2013

I'm normally a pretty big Michael Mann fan but I'd held off on watching this one because I'm not a big Will Smith fan. Sadly, "Ali" is more of a beautiful reenactment of Ali's life in the 60s and 70s, but without a lot of any real insight into the man himself or the motives for his decisions beyond the surface level.

Maybe if there had been more about his relationship with the Nation of Islam and Malcom X, that might have been more interesting. And for a man famous for talking, the Ali here hardly talks at all, though maybe that was the point.

Even if that was the point, it doesn't provide much insight into the man. The other major weakness was the lack of depth Will Smith brings to the part. Smith does do a good job recreating the physicality of Ali, but he's is completely lacking, by comparison to the real-life Ali, when it comes to charisma, though to be honest, there probably isn't an actor alive who could have live up to Ali's level of charisma.

And Jon Voight is just bizarre as Howard Cosell. I'm not quite sure how Smith and Voight earned Oscar nominations for this film. I found Mario Van Peeples as Malcom X a lot more compelling. Despite all that, Mann knows how to make a slick movie and it's definitely watchable, though not all that memorable (and rather long too).