Lack of good storyline.

Just perfect...

Better Late Then Never

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's not surprising how the impression from this movie is that "Ali can't act" -- but a distinction has to be made. Ali was plainly no dramatic actor; it doesn't mean he 'couldn't act'.Quite the opposite; Ali was a natural in the ring, on TV, in interviews; he was a gifted, graceful athlete -- sports are now all about performance, about 'acting', largely because of his influence. He was an intelligent, creative tactician, both physically and verbally, inside and outside the ring.He invented trash talk. He invented the modern notions of relentless self-promotion and self-aggrandizement; psychological warfare in sport. By the time he started affecting young movie actors, it was clear that it had all come full circle. Wesley Snipes is probably his closest scion ("White Men Can't Jump").But acting as himself in this hagiography, it's just no use.If you want a good period example of a natural, unscripted Ali experience, read his interviews with Hunter S. Thompson (in his "Great Shark Hunt" compendium).

9?¬9?est (1977) was a bio-pic that starred Muhammed Ali as himself. This film was based upon a biography that was titled the same as the movie. Who else could portray the "Greatest of All Time" other than the man himself. The movie follows Ali from when he was known as Cassius Clay, winning the boxing gold medal, winning the World's Heavyweight Boxing title from Sonny Liston, refusing to be inducted into the military because of his deep religious beliefs and so on. How far does the film go into his life? You'll have to find out when you watch THE GREATEST!!I felt that Ali did a good job of portraying himself. I can't see any other person being able of doing the job. ALI, the movie just didn't do the man justice. It was filled with a lot of flaws and omissions. THE GREATEST may not be the best movie around, but if you want to see the man in all of his glory then you have to watch this movie. It was a real hoot to see Ali running his famous "Louisville Lip" and it was also nice to see Ali's inner circle of friends and confidants live and up close. I enjoyed this film much more than the overrated ALI.Recommended for boxing fans.

Maybe the producers of this film thought it would be highly original to have Ali play himself. I can picture them sitting down and saying that really there is no actor who could do this man justice (this was before Will Smith was born!). However, Ali just couldn't act. Its sad watching him play himself as a young man when he's so obviously overwieght older and out of shape. Also I think that at the time this film was made, he was beginning to develop Parkinsons. His speech was already becoming slurry. The filmakers surround Ali with a professional cast of actors like James Earl Jones and Ernest Borgnine as Angelo Dundee, but Ali just wasn't right for this. Maybe this is one film that should never have been made. The lead up to the climatic Rumble in the Jungle with Foreman where he regains the title is done very well, it shows him training and running. They show quite a bit of footage from Ali's fights which is fine because they are from his best fights, the only thing is they keep playing the same damn music OVER AND OVER for them! It got kind of irritating. It was thrilling though in the end when Ali went up against the younger and stronger George Foreman and beat him in a stunning upset by using that "rope a dope" strategy. The final words of the film are of the fight commentator when he says "Foreman goes down, Muhammad Ali has done the IMPOSSIBLE! He has regained the Heavyweight Championship of the World"

The saddest thing about this film is that the script simply didn't have a feel for Ali's poetry or style...what results is a low-energy, plodding plot with remarkably bad switches from fight scenes to scripted bits. A good movie to break in your fast forward button from fight scene to fight scene. Also look for a forty-something Ferdie Pacheco played by a 70+ year-old actor...remarkable.