[nikki25]

As promised, here I am to provide my review of the movie, Ali starring Will Smith as Mohammed Ali. I saw the movie on yesterday evening.

I thought that the movie was good. It provided some details about Muhammad Ali's family background and helped the audience to see the complexity of Mohammed Ali's character. This was done by helping us see Ali's movement toward Islam, the way it impacted his thinking and work, and the flip side of persons in the organization. We also saw Ali's strength of character as he stood by and defended persons in his inner circle. I give the movie 3 out of 5 stars, however, because it didn't fully tell the tale of his life, but covered key events of his career. The ending seems rather abrupt. You really don't get a full sense of Ali's being...but got an understanding of some things driving the person that he has been. And, in a sense, I understand the rationale..it is an attempt to get at what matters without idealizing nor diminishing that which Ali has been.

I recommend seeing the movie in the theatres. The boxing scenes in this movie are just spectacular. And, unless you have a big screen TV with a DVD player and surround sound, you will simply miss the excitement of it.

The actors/actresses were excellent. I thought Will did a good job. I didn't see Will after a while...and if you've seen Six Degrees of Separation, then you know that Smith is capable of escaping his Fresh Prince persona. I totally believed him as Ali. Jada was good, although the "firecracker" nature of her character wasn't too far of a stretch from other characters she has played. Nona Gaye, for me, stole the show. She totally possessed her character and I was blown away. Jamie Foxx...how can you hate him? I do think that he played his role well...but the comedy wasn't a stretch for him. I think Jamie can do more and perhaps he will be given more opportunities. Did anyone see this guy in Any Given Sunday? He was brilliant.

At any rate, the movie was good, just brace yourself at the end.