Ali (2001)

There are flashes of the legendary Muhammad Ali wit and quick-thinking delivery peppered throughout this otherwise rather long and ponderous story of the life of Cassius Clay from relative poverty through to his mastery of not just the boxing ring but of the television media that, at that point, fed successfully from this truly global sport. It's Will Smith who takes centre stage after his gold medal victory at the Tokyo Olympiad in 1964 and like many other pugilists in history, his character offers the down-trodden, working class, an inspiration. With sweat, tears and hard work he can escape the ghetto and have his fame and fortune, so why not them? What Michael Mann now proceeds to do is offer us a biopic of this man - of his peccadilloes, his religious beliefs, his persecution by the government when he refuses to be drafted to Vietnam and of some of his friendships with the great and the good of the equal rights movement that were gaining in prominence and effectiveness under the likes of Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles). We are presented with a plausibly flawed individual, but one who is a proud and savvy man who knows just how to push the buttons to keeps his life-blood's publicity machine going. To that end, here, Smith is well supported by Jamie Foxx's "Bundini", the long-suffering Angelo Dundee (Ron Silver) and by Jon Voight as his follicularly challenged media foil from ABC television - Howard Cosell. It's Smith that rather underwhelms. He delivers the set-pieces well enough, presumably he could rehearse them - but the rest of his persona is all rather weak, undercooked and I felt really over-written. There's way too much melodrama and speculation and not enough of what made the man an household name (and favourite) in the first place - his fighting. For such a rich source this is all rather meandering and lacking in substance. Maybe we could have directors cut - only 45 minutes shorter?