The performances are through the roof in this film.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 16, 2024

The director's cut is the best but any version of Michael Mann's film makes it clear: The rope-a-dope was something Ali perfected outside the ring, cobbled together as a combination move inside only after he reconciled himself to his singular status.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 22, 2021

It has the unsurpassable merit of its main character, Muhammad Ali, who is both one of the most serious people in the world and one of the funniest.

| Apr 6, 2020

Smith packed on the pounds, unleashed some great boxing moves, and displayed a level of emotional pull that compelled audiences to see him as The Greatest.

| Mar 31, 2020

[Michael Mann] successfully recreates an era on screen and provides a great introduction to the fighter that is not clouded by sentimentality.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2019

Will Smith takes the wise and sensible option of not trying to impersonate Ali per se, but rather tonally build an impression of Ali from his own natural register.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2018

A flawed film, then, and a comparative disappointment. But because of Smith, the scrupulous recreation of the period and the general quality of the performances, I'll score Ali a narrow victory on points.

| Oct 17, 2017

You can almost see him thinking his way through his fights...

| Mar 25, 2011

Brutal fight scenes and frank racial issues.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 21, 2010

Mann vs. machine.

| Aug 21, 2009

More than competently mounted, with a hollowness just discernible in its core... feels like the first draft of whatever film Michael Mann set out to make.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 26, 2009

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2008

I respect it enormously, but it feels like an art film in search of a movie. Mann recognizes the importance of Ali as an entertainer, but he's in danger of forgetting how to be one himself.

| Mar 31, 2008

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 14, 2007

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

The challenge of dramatizing the celeb's life is only partially met nby Mann in this flawed biopic that narrowly focuses one one decade (1964-74), while gliding over Ali's private life and negletcing crucial aspects of his turbulent yet fascinating life.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 14, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Smith, who has a well-developed ego of his own, not only looks like the young Ali but also sounds like the brash Louisville Lip.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 25, 2004

Smith's transformation is nothing less than astounding.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 7, 2004