MovieChat Forums > Ali (2001) Discussion > this movie sucks

this movie sucks

posted 12 years ago by crakatoot
8 replies | jump to latest

it's just boring. I am a huge fan of Ali, i think he was a fascinating person and one of, if not thee greatest boxers of all time. And this movie is just boring. Will Smith gives the flattest performance of his career. The bulk of Ali's life is cut out. There is scene after of Smith just staring at things. Outside of talking trash we learn almost nothing of what Ali was like. And the movie is so God Damn melodramatic. The scene with Jamie Fox in the hotel room Is soooooo over the top. If you watch Ali in old interviews it always looked like he was having a good time. Like he loved the attention, he loved fighting and he loved talking *beep* He was a colorful character and this movie just makes ALi look miserable. Boring and miserable.
And there is so much freaking padding in this film. What the *beep* was the point of the scene with Ida Amin. And that scene where Dr. king got killed and there is all the riots and we see Ali watching it from his balcony. Not saying anything, not showing any expression. Just starring. Very boringly starring. I like Michael Mann but this movie is awful, he got almost everything wrong. He wasted time showing Ali's loved life, as if anyone gave a *beep* about that, instead of showing his major fights like with Frazier or Norton or Spinks or Cooper or Chuvalo or Shavvers or Lyle. Instead we get boring ass scenes with Ali and various woman. Scenes where we worry about Bundy's drug addiction. This movie had so much potential. and God willing a good movie about Ali will be made one day.

i told you not to stop the boat. Now lets go. Apocaylpse Now

[–] freejazz38 12 years ago

Your mother sucks

[–] chas437 12 years ago

I agree to a point. This film was overly ambitious to begin with. It demanded that Smith be able to pull off Ali. Smith wasn't up to the task, and perhaps no actor alive is. Anyhow, the film doesn't really succeed because of it. It has some value as a historical piece, I suppose.

I was watching a marathon of Howard Cosell/Ali interviews on ESPN Classic the other day. Ali had a careless, almost childlike quality about him. He had a crazy, dazed look in his eyes and a manic personality as well. I don't know if it was an act or he was already becoming punch drunk by the late 1970s.

Smith fails to capture any of this. But, again the bar was set very high for this role.

Also, Will Smith built up a lot of upper body strength for this role. Ali never had a body like that. Ali was never a power punching brute, but always the consummate skillful defensive fighter, who won fights against bigger stronger guys by out-thinking them. This doesn't come across in the film.

Oh, and also the film is one hour too long. So, yeah its kind of a failure.

"For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest"

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] merlewilliams42 11 years ago

This movie sucks,man what are you smoking, are you on crack or something smh,this is a good damn movie,to portray the greatest of all time,to me this is probably Will Smith's best movie he's been in...

[–] crakatoot 9 years ago

It sucks. That's prob what u meant to say

[–] Zanderio 10 years ago

Only Will Smith's voice sucks.

[–] BHt88 9 years ago

It blows

BHT RISES myspace.com/blackheart60

[–] Sparky48 9 years ago

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP. Although I'm a huge fan of Ali, and I actually thought Will Smith did a fine job of portraying Ali in this movie, I think that it was Michael Mann who blew this.

The biggest problem of this movie is how it overemphasizes the "Rumble in the Jungle" fight in Zaire. I suppose Mann did this in an effort to get the "When We Were Kings" effect. But as the OP says, scenes with with Ida Amin and Mubuto were pointless and irrelevant, as too were the scenes with Ali arguing with his second wife Belinda about his extra-marital affairs. Rather than delve on these insignificant incidents in Zaire, I also agree that Mann should have focused instead on other historic Ali fights, such as the Chuvalo, Patterson, and Norton fights. This would have made the movie far more compelling and interesting.