Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Very disappointing...

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The life of Muhammad Ali (both inside and outside the ring) is one of the most fascinating in all of sports or US history. At times, this movie captures those moments. Sadly, it doesn't catch nearly enough of them, focuses on the wrong things, and ends up a bloated, ponderous exercise in preachy film-making.For a basic plot summary, "Ali" opens with Cassius Clay (Will Smith) defeating Sonny Liston (Michael Bentt) to become the boxing heavyweight champion of the world. Shortly after this event, Clay falls in the Muslim Brotherhood, befriending such figures as Malcolm X (Mario Van Peebles) & Herbert Muhammad (Barry Shabaka Henley). He also begins a romantic relationship with Sonji Roi (Jada Pinkett Smith) that is often tumultuous due to Ali's interpretations of the Muslim faith. Entering the prime of his fighting career, Ali is then drafted into the Vietnam War, which he refuses to participate in. As a result, he is stripped of his boxing license and not even able to leave the country. After years of fighting the U.S. government, Ali is finally able to be reinstated, where he gets the "Fight of the Century" with Joe Frazier (James Toney) and then the "Rumble In The Jungle" against George Foreman (Charles Shufford).Judged purely on film-making and directing, "Ali" isn't even a three-star effort. It is overly preachy when it comes to the "political stuff", and director Michael Mann uses such a weird style. About every 20 minutes or so, there is an extended musical sequence, all of which (besides maybe the opening one) only serve to grind the intensity of the film to a complete halt. Every time the action starts to progress again...it's back to another strange interlude.There are two other problems with the film that are quite glaring:1. There is nothing (at least in terms of style) that director Mann really gets right during the film. The political side of things is definitely important to the Ali story, but in this case it is preachy and over-the-top. Then, when it comes to the boxing fare, there are too many historical inaccuracies to consider even those scenes a true success. Maybe those who know nothing about Ali won't care, but those who have a little background will be appalled to hearing Ali's famous poem used before the Frazier fight instead of Liston, or seeing Ali & Frazier getting buddy-buddy with each other before their fight (in reality, Frazier couldn't stand Ali until very late in his life when some amends were made).2. For a movie titled "Ali", this should have focused on the entirety of Ali's life. That would have made for a much better story. Ali had a very interesting childhood, and also had some genre- defining moments late in his life as well. Those areas weren't even sniffed in this adaptation, which is a shame, as the film instead to give so much valuable time to the political/religious side of things.I'm sure by now you are probably wondering why I can even give this film three stars. Well, the main reason is because Will Smith turns in perhaps the greatest acting performance I have ever seen...bar none. He IS Ali in this picture, plain and simple. The times (sadly rare as they are) where Smith is given the chance to rant and rave like Ali once did are easily the best parts of the film. His interactions with Howard Cosell (played by Jon Voight) are also special.Also, the fight scenes are probably the most well-done boxing action I've even seen in a film. The fights manage to be both dramatic and realistic at the same time, which is no easy task in such a violent (yet also very tactical) sport.Overall, though, "Ali" is first and foremost a disappointment. Even a three-star rating probably holds some personal bias of how much I simply WANT the film to be better than it is. While Smith's iconic Ali performance will certainly stand for ages, it's sad that it has to be surrounded by such sloppy film-making. I would suggest "When We Were Kings" or "Facing Ali" for a much better nod to Ali's unique career and culture-defining role in American society.

What an amazing film I really don't know where to start or finish with this one. But what we already know is Mohammed Ali was a true sports legend. The film showed all highs and lows and the real points of his career. A real watch for any film lover and one of the greatest films of 2001. You have an amazing actor none other than Will Smith who fits the role perfectly. A great fast telling story that stings like a bee and along with it some of the greatest scene in a film that contains boxing. The small soundtrack might be limited but fits the film greatly. If any film derserve an award back in 2001 then this one did with amazing amount of wins you can see why this was such a great film about the legend. There really not much more to say it highlights the situations Ali faced in his younger years right down where he proved just how great of a fighting legend he truly was and why he was such a legend to a genration in the present days. He did what any man would do and fighted not just America but to rank as the top man.

The first thing that I am prepared to acknowledge is Will Smith's performance in this film; he was impressive and seemed to really get into the character of Ali. Although his acting was excellent in this film, I don't believe that he should have been Oscar nominated. Likewise, Foxx and several of the supporting characters were also excellent. The film was also well-shot and generally well-made and from a technical aspect it was a fairly polished product. Unfortunately, that's where the praise for this film ends....For me there was far too much time spent on dull aspects of Ali's life such as Ali's various relationships - this aspect of his life got way too much focus and it did, at times, make the film feel like an over-long combination of melodrama and soap opera. At the same time, other potentially more interesting or important areas seemed to either have been ignored or glossed over - there's very little focus on Ali's training, no real mention of his family. Considering the film is over 2 and a half hours long I expected there to be a reasonable amount of boxing and/or training, but we're probably treated to about 30 minutes of boxing (if that) and then 2 hours of melodrama and soap opera. I'm sure a lot of what I describe as 'melodrama' and 'soap opera' type events did occur in Ali's life, but these elements don't make for an entertaining film and should have been kept to a minimum.All of the above isn't helped by the fact that the screenplay felt like it was put together in a haphazard way - the writers would shift from one aspect of Ali's life to another in quick succession barely giving you chance to digest what you've just seen.Although from a technical perspective this film was generally well put together and polished I did feel that the camera work during the boxing matches was pretty poor and as a result I didn't feel quite as involved in the action as I did when I've watched other boxing films. This came as a really big disappointment when you consider how poor many other elements of the film were.Aside from the great performances, there really isn't much else going for this film. My feeling are that it was an over-long soap opera with a bit of boxing thrown in here and there. If you want to see a good boxing biopic then I would recommend Cinderella Man. Muhammad Ali may be the Greatest, but this film certainly isn't.

In the USA, Mohammed Ali is still a divisive figure, even to people who probably not even alive when his boxing career was in its decline.To others outside the USA he is universally acknowledged as a hero, someone who transcended his sport to become a universally popular hero.Michael Mann takes up the challenge to try to tweak out the various facets of Ali and show someone who is not an easy subject to capture but his boxing of course makes the narrative easier.The film ends with the Rumble in the Jungle when he beat Foreman, we go through the period when he could not box because of his stance against Vietnam and of course his earlier rise to become champion of world heavyweight boxing and his alliance with the Nation of Islam.Mann as expected does not go through the straight biopic, he elicits from Will Smith a great performance which was Oscar nominated, Jamie Foxx as Bundini Brown should had also got recognition and Jon Voight under heavy make up is unrecognisable and got a best supporting Oscar nod.Mann took an auteur's approach to his subject, its narrative style was not too popular at the time of its release, mainly because everyone have their own ideas as to how the film of the man should be like. Yet Mann provides enough flourish to let has have enough of a flourish of this legendary boxer.