Ali - The Director's Cut

Starring:Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles, Ron Silver, Jeffrey Wright, Mykelti Williamson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nona Gaye, Michael Michele, Joe Morton, Bruce McGill, Paul Rodriguez, Barry Shabaka Henley, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Mason, LeVar Burton, Albert Hall, David Cubitt, Ted Levine
Director: Michael Mann
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Ali is a rush of charm, violence, and well-crafted mythmaking sure to enthrall. From the unforgettable surge of the opening--a 10-minute montage of sheer brilliance where formative scenes from the early life of Cassius Clay float along on the rapture of a live performance by Sam Cooke in a Harlem nightclub--through to Muhammad Ali's departure for Zaire to fight George Foreman, Michael Mann's homage is mostly crisp and fleet-footed. As Clay/Ali, Will Smith acquits himself marvelously due in large part to his uncanny re-creation of Ali's most famous weapon, his mesmerizing voice. Indeed, the best scenes throughout showcase Ali's verbal rather than pugilistic sparring; whether with his entourage (notably Jamie Foxx), Howard Cosell (Jon Voight), or Don King (Mykelti Williamson), Michael Mann's Ali has the same authoritative wit and ability to surprise that so disarmed the public. The news conferences and behind-the-scenes banter are exquisitely re-created; not so Ali's flaws. Mann's attempt to depict Ali's womanizing, his dubious affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and his insatiable need for the spotlight seems halfhearted and laborious in comparison to the film's enlivened adoration of its subject. As the sluggish second half of the film betrays, Ali is at its impressionistic best when it's in awe rather than when it explains. --Fionn Meade

Customer Reviews:

truth be told, i cant wait for "toothless: the leon spinks story".......2007-03-25

a quarter century before, muhammad ali HIMSELF made a legendarily bad biopic of his life. he was better than will smith.

STING LIKE A BEE .......2007-02-22

On its face it is hard to see how a cinematic treatment of the life of Muhammad Ali (played here by Will Smith), the great prizefighter, could adequately portray the life he actually led. But that is indeed the case here. For those who grew up with him in mid-20th century America it is a nostalgic look back. For those too young to have known his life story this is a good primer of why many considered him one of the greatest athletics of all time and one why, friend or foe, considered him one hell of a man.

I am not now nor was I then a fight fan. The part of Ali's career that interests me is his fight against black oppression, as he saw it. That in his youth he took a black separatist course joining the Nation of Islam in reaction to the rampart racism in America and American sports is understandable if not strategically the way forward for black liberation. The scenes with Malcolm X, who acted as something of a mentor, are among the best in the film.

Ali was a man not only with a sports mission but a political mission. That became quite apparent when he, despite damage to his career and to his financial interests, refused to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War period. His reasoning was simple-he had no quarrel with the Vietnamese. Many lesser figures, who now head the American government, were not nearly so forthright and skipped around the decisive political and moral event of the baby boomer generation. Hats off to Ali. Hats off to a great liberation fighter, who stood up when it counted.

Ali .......2007-01-06

The movie was in perfect shape. Although the outer case looked like someone jabbed it with a pin and scraped up with it the movie didn't have one scrach. That to me is all that matters I would buy from them again.

Okay.......2006-12-29

The movie was good, but there were no special features on the DVD, and that disappointed me. Will Smith's performance was good, but not as good as Jamie Foxx's. The script didn't seem to let you 'inside' the feelings of Ali, except for his tears when Malcomn X was assassinated. This film made Bundini (Jamie Foxx) more real than Ali (Will Smith). But all in all, very worthwhile watching.

An interesting biopic not to be taken too seriously.......2006-10-06

Mann's "Ali" isn't a masterpiece by any means, but the cinematic car crash I expected to see didn't happen either. People like Spike Lee and those actually involved with Ali's life (Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier) have ripped this movie to pieces and the critics have ridiculed it mercilessly.

A lot of movies about national icons fail simply because they tackle figures that are larger than can be captured in the medium of film (Hoffa, The Doors, etc), and this is undeniably one of them--one of the more enjoyable ones, though.

Mario Van Peebles does his best, and I think pretty well, at playing Malcolm X, whose abandonment by Ali is shown very clearly in this film.
Will Smith is as good as he can be playing Muhammad Ali himself, and he captures that strange, childlike Southern tough guy voice damn near perfectly. Jon Voight is just covered in makeup as Cosell; he's unrecognizable, and I'm surprised he didn't suffocate. To give him any credit for his performance would be as meaningless as saying one of the monkeys in "Planet of the Apes" did a great job.

Even through the more labored, musically constipated scenes (Mann must have realized this couldn't be a success and tried to compensate by drowning some of it out with blues music of the period) are boring to the point of exhaustion--Ali running, Ali on the bus, Ali hearing that famous expression actually invented by him in Zaire ("Ali, bumaye!") to the point where we want to tell the Africans to shut up--there's an honesty to this movie that took courage.

Mann does not cover up the warts of his subject. Ali as womanizer, a confused young man who could be cruel at times, a man driven largely by unconscious impulses, all the unpleasant aspects of this enigmatic figure are here for everyone to see. There is no hero worship here, which is surprising.

The boxing scenes are what I took serious issue with. The gloves used by Ali and his opponents look like balloons, about 18 inches long, and the actual blows look so fake that they suggest aborted attempts at violent hugs rather than punches. (The Jerry Quarry fight is the worst. He just starts bleeding spontaneously after a few taps.)

This does show the heroic side of Ali, however whimsical, very well. His refusal to fight in Vietnam even at the urges of the Nation of Islam is portrayed as what it was; a heroic act with dire, irreversible consequences. Could you see Michael Jordan or Barry Bonds doing that if it meant losing money? Probably not. The courtroom scenes and Ali's stoic refusal to submit show the spiritual side of this gigantic and ill-fated man.

Personally, I was glad that Mann stopped with Ali's last moment of real magic, the knockout of the ferocious George Foreman. I wouldn't doubt that this is what Ali wanted and I wouldn't want to seem them stuff Smith's cheeks and making him look like the cadaverous shell of himself that he was getting beaten on by bums like Trevor Berbick.

This is worth watching as a primer on Ali's life and an exciting movie.

DVD:

DVD List

DVD

DVD

Sonic Bloom by Larry Douglas Embury

The Water Margin - Season 2 -

Spooks: Season 1 [2002]

DVD: Cruel Intentions (Collector's Edition)

The New Avengers - K Is For Kill - Parts 1 and 2