Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

classicsoncall It should probably be a given that real life sports celebrities should never depict themselves in stories about their own life. Baseball star Jackie Robinson was called upon to do the same thing in a 1950 movie about his career up till then - "The Jackie Robinson Story". Quite unexpectedly, Robinson displayed a surprising lack of charisma portraying himself, no doubt due to the fact that he was probably very self conscious appearing on screen. The same can't be said of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali of course. I don't think anyone could ever accuse him of being camera shy, but this picture simply doesn't do the former champ justice.I say this with the hindsight of having grown up with Clay/Ali's name in the headlines virtually non-stop from the time he became a heavyweight contender and handed Sonny Liston that stunning defeat to become World Champion on February 25th, 1964. From that point on, the colorful boxer maintained a ubiquitous presence on front pages of the nation's newspapers with his prophetic poetry and outsized ego. The story here does touch on all that, with a whirlwind overview of his troubles with the government and the matches that brought him his second world title at the 'Rumble in the Jungle' in Kinshasa, Zaire against a formidable George Foreman.Notably absent from this biopic, and one I can't quite understand, was the omission of legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell, who followed Ali's career closely and became a close friend. With other members of Ali's inner circle portrayed by actors like Ernest Borgnine, John Marley and Lloyd Haines, Cosell's absence stuck out like a sore thumb for this viewer.One thing that the picture depicted that I was never aware of was the business with the young Clay throwing away his Olympic gold medal over a racial grievance. I can't imagine how that ever got by me, and so I questioned it's accuracy while watching the picture. An internet search revealed a story about someone finding the medal in the Ohio River some fifty four years later on June 21, 2014, thereby putting to rest any concerns that the story was fabricated by the loquacious Ali as a publicity stunt when it was revealed for the first time.Die hard Muhammad Ali fans will probably want to tune into this story, but on the flip side, die hard fans won't learn anything new, so the novelty would be in seeing Ali portray himself as a young man on his climb to becoming 'The Greatest'. Unlikely as it may seem, the 2001 film "Ali" starring Will Smith as the legendary champ is more inspirational than this one, and comes recommended for fans of the boxer and the man.

skullislandsurferdotcom In 1977 Mohammad Ali wasn't only a boxing champion, he was a personality. His confidence and poetic rants made people smile, sometimes in disbelief. So they decided to, instead of creating a documentary, allow him to star, as himself, in a film covering his lean hungry youth - when he went by the name Cassius Clay - to his rise as "the greatest boxer in the world".Another somewhat dependable actor plays a teenage Ali but then we switch to the real thing much too soon. When this was shot, Ali was a man who seemed mellow and tired: at the end of his game. An iconic millionaire playing a hungry climber is not only misplaced, but at times downright embarrassing. While he does have a graceful, laid-back charm, and it's fun seeing him interact with real actors like Ernest Borgnine and Robert Duvall, the film's cutting from excerpts of actual fights back to the movie-at-hand is preposterously contrived.This Ali's personal propaganda for his Muslim faith and the hardships against the white man, all played out like something you'd see on television but without a lean young actor, much needed to capture the intensity attempted herein.And the last fifteen minutes, as Ali jogs to a Bill Conti-like score before the final bout, it's obvious that without Sly Stallone's blockbuster the year before, this probably would never have been made: at least not in this fashion.

jldmp1 It's not surprising how the impression from this movie is that "Ali can't act" -- but a distinction has to be made. Ali was plainly no dramatic actor; it doesn't mean he 'couldn't act'.Quite the opposite; Ali was a natural in the ring, on TV, in interviews; he was a gifted, graceful athlete -- sports are now all about performance, about 'acting', largely because of his influence. He was an intelligent, creative tactician, both physically and verbally, inside and outside the ring.He invented trash talk. He invented the modern notions of relentless self-promotion and self-aggrandizement; psychological warfare in sport. By the time he started affecting young movie actors, it was clear that it had all come full circle. Wesley Snipes is probably his closest scion ("White Men Can't Jump").But acting as himself in this hagiography, it's just no use.If you want a good period example of a natural, unscripted Ali experience, read his interviews with Hunter S. Thompson (in his "Great Shark Hunt" compendium).

vchimpanzee I said several months ago that no one could play Ali except Ali. I was right. Muhammad Ali does a magnificent job playing himself in this movie. Maybe he's no actor, but in this case he accomplished what he set out to do, and he had several really effective scenes, such as when he explained why he didn't want to go to Vietnam, and the scene where Clay demanded that he no longer be called by that slave name.This was the third film (as opposed to documentary) that I saw on the life of the great boxer. David Ramsey did an okay job in the first one, and Will Smith tried his best but didn't quite capture the champ as only the champ could. Smith may have been the best actor out of the three, and certainly his film was the best.Chip McAllister made young Cassius Clay too much of a clown. He was okay, I guess, but the portrayal of the character improved dramatically at one point, and I also noticed the actor looked so much more like Clay. That's when I remembered: Ali himself was playing the character.Ernest Borgnine did a capable job as Ali's trainer, but this was not one of his best performances. James Earl Jones did a fine job as Malcolm X, brief as the performance was.I learned a few new details about Ali's life I didn't know before. I also found out that 'The Greatest Love of All' was written long before Whitney Houston made it a hit. The main reason for watching this movie was Ali himself. He was the greatest.