So often thought of primarily as the big lug who was so dramatically dispatched by Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire in 1974, George Foreman is the main event in Big George Foreman. While there is plenty of boxing here to satisfy sports fans, the film is mild-mannered and genial to a fault as it charts the life of a dirt-poor Texas kid with a devastating punch whose public image transformed over the years from hulking bogeyman to that of a good-natured businessman and man of God.
Ali was such a commanding, entertaining and (mostly) adored worldwide figure, from his emergence as the self-anointed “greatest” to his ultimate status as one of the most beloved and admired men on the planet, that it isn’t easy to watch him take a back seat here to a younger but less charismatic figure onscreen. Eventually, if you like...
Ali was such a commanding, entertaining and (mostly) adored worldwide figure, from his emergence as the self-anointed “greatest” to his ultimate status as one of the most beloved and admired men on the planet, that it isn’t easy to watch him take a back seat here to a younger but less charismatic figure onscreen. Eventually, if you like...
- 4/27/2023
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Regina King's One Night in Miami creates an emotionally intimate portrait of Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), the legendary boxer who, shortly after becoming the heavyweight champion of the world, denounced the name Cassius Clay. Indeed, it was around the events of the film that the trailblazing Ali announced his new identity. The Amazon Prime movie, based on Kemp Powers's play of the same name, takes us to the night of Feb. 25, 1964, when the 22-year-old boxer famously defeated Sonny Liston. That evening, the young champion spent time with his friends Sam Cooke, Malcolm X, and Jim Brown. A month later, he announced to the world that he was Muhammad Ali. But why, exactly, did he change his name? After publicly joining the Nation of Islam, Ali put it in his own words: "Cassius Clay is a slave name."
During a press conference after his historic night, Ali first announced...
During a press conference after his historic night, Ali first announced...
- 1/15/2021
- by Stacey Nguyen
- Popsugar.com
A review of this week’s Fargo, “Lay Away,” coming up just as soon as just as soon as Jonah says there’s a big fish out there somewhere…
“There are people you can kill, and people you can’t.” —Ebal Violante
This season of Fargo opened with five episodes in a row that clocked in at around an hour without commercials, meaning anyone watching live on FX on Sunday nights wasn’t done until around 11:30 P.M. Both “Lay Away” and last week’s “Camp Elegance”, by contrast,...
“There are people you can kill, and people you can’t.” —Ebal Violante
This season of Fargo opened with five episodes in a row that clocked in at around an hour without commercials, meaning anyone watching live on FX on Sunday nights wasn’t done until around 11:30 P.M. Both “Lay Away” and last week’s “Camp Elegance”, by contrast,...
- 11/2/2020
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
Muhammad Ali’s bark was as formidable as his bite, and “What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali” pays tribute to both, allowing the three-time heavyweight champ to narrate his own story via a combination of audio and video archival material. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, this 165-minute documentary uses copious interview soundbites to highlight the pugilist’s unparalleled gift of gab — and, consequently, the way it served as his means of defiant self-definition. Debuting on HBO in two parts (after premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival), it’s a celebration that, if not quite definitive, proves a stirring work of nonfiction assembly.
Comprised of old photos and film, TV, and radio clips, Fuqua’s project (executive-produced by LeBron James) does its best to approximate an autobiographical authorship, allowing “the greatest” to be his own storyteller. That approach, along with a narrative focus that remains almost exclusively on his public...
Comprised of old photos and film, TV, and radio clips, Fuqua’s project (executive-produced by LeBron James) does its best to approximate an autobiographical authorship, allowing “the greatest” to be his own storyteller. That approach, along with a narrative focus that remains almost exclusively on his public...
- 4/29/2019
- by Nick Schager
- Variety Film + TV
While on holiday last week I re-read the toast of the Signifying Monkey (here), an African-American reworking of African mythology depicting the survival strategies of the trickster (the titular monkey) attempting, in the face of oppression and discrimination to defuse the powers of exploitation and undermine (racial) misrepresentation. He does so not through violence or aggression but cunning and wit. It is a powerful poem with a strong resonance in the African-American political struggle. Signifying, in the non-folkloric sense, is the creation of new “language”, a “way of saying one thing but meaning another”, and is a trope that can be found in music, particularly in blues and jazz, in the improvisations of Coltrane, Monk and others, and in soul music, in testifying and calling out (see the music of James Brown especially.) Here, though, it reminded me of Muhammad Ali. Ali was the great urban trickster of sixties and seventies America and,...
- 12/18/2009
- by Nick Clarke
- t5m.com
Sunday was supposed to be a day of sports and soldiers. I was planning on seeing a documentary called Facing Ali, a feature film about soldiers called The Messenger, and another documentary called Warrior Champions, which showcases some severely wounded veterans competing in the Paraolympic Games in Beijing in 2008. Instead, Sunday was a day of sports and scene kids. Facing Ali My day began again at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. Those Alamojitos make it easy to find myself at this place about three times a day. It's no secret that boxing is my favorite sport. It's also no secret that Muhammad Ali is my favorite (non-fictional) sports figure. So, for me, this otherwise minor documentary turned into one of the festival highlights thus far. Lionsgate Films and Spike TV present this great documentary about Muhammad Ali, told from the vantage point of his opponents. In Facing Ali, there's certainly a historical picture of Ali, and...
- 10/27/2009
- by Bethany Perryman
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Muhammad Ali has already been the subject of documentaries, films and biopics, but Facing Ali is different because it looks at the man, the fighter, through the eyes of those who faced him in the ring.
And in looking at the man — and the myth — of Ali, we're told the story of modern prize fighting. It is, English fighter Henry Cooper says in the film's early moments, a story of immigrants and the working class. Fighters, he explains, are motivated to get out of their environment.
Presented by director Pete McCormack (Uganda Rising) and producer Derik Murray (Legends of Hockey chronologically, starting with the 1963 fight between Ali — he was Cassius Clay then — and Cooper, and ending with Ali's 1980 loss to Larry Holmes.
The soundtrack for the film matches the shifting era, too, moving from jazz to funk as we move from the '60s into the '70s.
Along the way...
And in looking at the man — and the myth — of Ali, we're told the story of modern prize fighting. It is, English fighter Henry Cooper says in the film's early moments, a story of immigrants and the working class. Fighters, he explains, are motivated to get out of their environment.
Presented by director Pete McCormack (Uganda Rising) and producer Derik Murray (Legends of Hockey chronologically, starting with the 1963 fight between Ali — he was Cassius Clay then — and Cooper, and ending with Ali's 1980 loss to Larry Holmes.
The soundtrack for the film matches the shifting era, too, moving from jazz to funk as we move from the '60s into the '70s.
Along the way...
- 10/10/2009
- CinemaSpy
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