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Imdb Rating: 6.3
Genre: Biography
Directed: Gregory Allen Howard (story), Stephen J. Rivele (screenplay)
Country: USA
Year: 2001
Duration: 159 min

Media: Hot stuff

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Actors: Will Smith (as Cassius Clay/Cassius X/Muhammad Ali), Jamie Foxx (as Drew 'Bundini' Brown), Jon Voight (as Howard Cosell), Mario Van Peebles (as Malcolm X), Ron Silver (as Angelo Dundee), Jeffrey Wright (as Howard Bingham), Mykelti Williamson (as Don King), Jada Pinkett Smith (as Sonji), Nona Gaye (as Belinda Ali), Michael Michele (as Veronica Porche), Joe Morton (as Chauncey Eskridge), Bruce McGill (as Bradley), Paul Rodriguez (as Dr. Ferdie Pacheco), Barry Shabaka Henley (as Herbert Muhammad), Giancarlo Esposito (as Cassius Clay, Sr.)

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Description: "Forget What You Think You Know"

A biography of sports legend, Muhammad Ali, from his early days to his days in the ring.

Comment: Although this film was too long, it missed out the beginning and end of the Ali story. The omission of Clay being refused service in a diner upon his return from the Olympics and the 'Thrilla in Manila' leave huge holes in the make-up of the man and icon that is Muhammad Ali.

The fight scenes are superbly choreographed using real boxers and this is part of another problem with the film – is it a documentary or a movie?. As a boxing fan, I had difficulty believing that his opponents were who they were supposed to be - Joe Frazier was James Toney with an afro wig and never had me believing that he was Joe Frazier.

Overall, this film dealt well with Ali's womanising and relationship with 'Bundini' Brown and Howard Cosell but was superficial and left me unfulfilled. Maybe this was mission impossible but the movie set out ambitious targets and missed most of them. You are better off getting a video of Ali's fights, watching 'When We Were Kings' and reading his biography by Thomas Hauser.

IMDB TRIVIA FOR ALI (2001):
- Stephen J. Rivele's and Christopher Wilkinson's first draft sprawled across 200 pages, taking Ali from childhood up to the present.
- Michael Mann and Eric Roth, the writing team behind The Insider (1999), heavily revised Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson's script (a Writer's Guild arbitration ruled on 1 October 2001 that all four would have credit for the screenplay).
- Producer Jon Peters first commissioned an Ali screenplay from writer Gregory Allen Howard (Remember the Titans (2000)) in 1994. Though Gregory Allen Howard's screenplay, titled "Power and Grace", was an expansive study of Ali from childhood on, it languished for three years without securing A-list talent.
- Will Smith gained 35 pounds to match Ali's 220.
- Charles Shufford, a real-life 235 pound heavyweight boxer with a 17-2 record who plays George Foreman, was given license to make his punches as real as possible, short of incapacitating the film's star.
- Shortly after Ali knocks out George Foreman, there is a close-up of Ali with what appears to be a lone white butterfly flying behind him. This is no doubt an allusion to 'Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee'.
- Both Will Smith and Michael Mann offered to put up their salaries in case the film went over-budget.
- As the project lay in "development hell" for more than a decade, several directors attempted to make the film until Michael Mann was finally chosen. The list included: Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, and Norman Jewison.
- Michael Mann and Will Smith always wanted Jon Voight for the role of Howard Cosell.
- In the edited TV version, director Michael Mann is credited instead as "Alan Smith", an obvious variant of Alan Smithee.

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