Will Smith and Michael Bent in "Ali."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film an: Stars: Will Smith Director: Michael Mann Rated: R, profanity, sex, violence Length: 154 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(December 25, 2001) -- If Ali, Michael Mann's prestigious new biopic about Muhammad Ali, were in a heavyweight title bout, it would certainly be a winner. But not by a knockout.

Like some fights, it starts with a fierce flurry of activity. The early rounds are spectacular.

In the later rounds, the film, like some fighters, gets a bit tired and seems a little dazed. Ultimately, the film holds on to win by a unanimous decision.

To put it in the language of film, Ali offers a powerful, artful and involving first 90 minutes or so, buoyed by two of the best performances of the year. But then the film stumbles through a meandering final segment.

Ali is played brilliantly by Will Smith, sporting an impressively buffed body, believable boxing technique and the distinctive, bombastic speaking style of the Louisville Lip.

Jamie Foxx is nearly as good as Bundini Brown, Ali's friend and cornerman who overcomes alcoholism and addiction.

Both deserve Oscar nominations.

Mann and his three co-writers center their story on the 10 years from 1964, when Ali upsets Sonny Liston for the crown, to 1974, when Ali defeats George Foreman in Zaire to reclaim his crown.

Between those memorable events, Ali becomes attached to the Black Muslims and suffers through a two-year struggle with the U.S. government when he refuses military induction.

Whatever else we glean about Ali comes through impressionistic flashbacks -- including a brief memory of Ali as a little boy named Cassius Clay, getting on a segregated bus in Louisville.

The long opening segment is a stunner -- we're introduced to Ali in training, with sequences presented parallel to a 1964 Sam Cooke concert, which orchestrates the action, establishes the period and sets the mood.

I only wish Mann's imagination had been as strong for the concluding chapter -- the fabled "Rumble in the Jungle" Ali-Foreman fight in Africa. Instead of getting tighter and crisper with his editing or more visceral with his action, Mann inexplicably slows down the film.

At one point, Ali jogs endlessly through the streets and alleyways of an African village as youngsters tag along. It would be effective in short bursts, but it goes on and on and on. By choosing to conclude the film with the Foreman fight, Mann and company invite comparison with the Oscar-winning 1996 documentary When We Were Kings, which more effectively explores the same event.

To tell Ali's story, Mann has assembled a stellar cast, including standouts Ron Silver (as manager Angelo Dundee), Mario Van Peebles (as Malcolm X) and Jon Voight (as announcer Howard Cosell).

Like Mann's other films (including Last of the Mohicans, The Insider and Heat), Ali is visually exciting, with gliding cameras, quick cuts and intricate lighting. And the music score faithfully re-creates the '60s and '70s.

And at least four Ali fights are meticulously re-created with the most realistic boxing footage since Raging Bull.

Smith deserves acclaim not only for the body he developed to play Ali and for the emotional depth he brings to the portrayal, but also for his astonishing re-creation of Ali's downright poetic boxing style.

Columbia is marketing Ali with the slogan "Forget what you think you know." The implication is that the film will shed considerable new light on the great champion. In truth, it doesn't.

But it certainly is a strong primer for young or uninitiated viewers, as well as an artful reminder for the rest of us about the eventful life and times of the most charismatic athlete of his age.