Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

poe-48833 They say that there are only a handful of characters who are instantly recognizable the world over; they mention characters like Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan and Superman- but Holmes and Lord Greystoke and Kal-El are all make-believe. Muhammad Ali wasn't. Last night, around Midnight, I heard the news that he'd Moved On. For me, Muhammad Ali filled a gaping void in my life; he was a Role Model I could look up to (unlike my alcoholic father)- a man who Practiced what he Preached. Along with the likes of Charlton Heston and Bruce Lee and writers like Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison and dozens of comic book writers and artists, Muhammad Ali taught me what it was to be a Man. He brought the posturing of professional wrestling to the all-too-real world of professional Boxing and made it work. He even fought and beat The Man of Steel, Superman, in an illustrated story rendered by none other than Neal Adams himself (who I came to think of as "the Muhammad Ali of comics"). Something VITAL has been Lost in this World, and we're never going to see his Like again. I remember seeing an interview with Ali, who was watching footage of himself as a young man: in the clips, he was announcing his Greatness to the World at the top of his lungs- and backing up his braggadocio against some of the most dangerous fighters in Heavyweight Boxing history (surely no God ever faced such Monsters!). "I sure was somethin', wasn't I?" he mused. Indeed.

paul2001sw-1 The story of Muhammed Ali and the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" is the stuff of legend; the world's best boxer becomes a hate figure for middle America and is banned for political reasons; he returns but has lost his edge; he gets a last shot at the world title in a fight to be held in Zaire, whose kleptomaniac dictator is willing to put up his people's cash to pay for it; and against all the odds, he astonishingly beats the superior puncher George Foreman through a combination of wit and bravery. Ali was beautiful and clever as well as violent; his "art" destroyed him, but it's easy to tell his story as a kind of noble myth. Which is exactly what 'When We Were Kings', a documentary that relies relatively little on talking heads (because the whole drama was a kind of performance, and filmed) does. The film even gets its soundtrack for free thanks to the musicians brought in to publicise the fight. I don't even like boxing, but it's still a compelling story; but also watch 'Thrilla in Manilla', a film about Ali's next fight, for a story that takes something of the gloss of his personal sheen.

ShootingShark A documentary of the events surrounding The Rumble In The Jungle - the 1974 World Heavyweight Boxing Championship fight in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) between Muhammad Ali and defending champion George Foreman.This tremendous movie is both an excellent chronicle of a boxing match which was extraordinary in pretty much every way, and a wonderful depiction of it/Ali's social and cultural impact. If you ever doubted Ali's incredible fighting skill, ferocious intelligence and his importance as a prominent African American at a crucial period of history, you must see this film. The tactics he uses to outsmart and defeat a much stronger opponent are brilliant and carefully explained. His constant quips and raps, with his belligerent / comic delivery are hilarious, "I have rassled with an alligator / I done tussled with a whale / I done handcuffed lightning / Throwed thunder in jail.". Most impressive of all though is his keen mind, always working overtime, analysing people and situations and coming out with perceptive, individualistic, thought-provoking comments. Here is a man who received little education and struggled to read, but had amazing wit and insight. His political stances, his struggle for recognition and his philanthropy for the disadvantaged are inspirational. The circumstances of the fight are equally amazing; boxing impresario Don King risked a fledgling career by persuading the notorious African dictator Mobutu Sese Seko to front the prize money, and then promoted it as an international spectacle of black Americans reclaiming their cultural history. Sheer genius. For extra fun we also get plenty of footage of a simultaneous concert featuring several sensational acts, notably B.B. King's rendition of Sweet Sixteen. Almost all of the 1974 footage was shot by Gast and tied up in ownership rights for twenty years, but looks sensational and is cleverly intercut with insightful comments, particularly by Mailer. A superb documentary.

Lee Eisenberg Probably what makes "When We Were Kings" especially effective is the opening: Muhammad Ali, explaining his plan to participate in a boxing match in Zaire, declares "Africa is the home of the black man." I had actually never heard of the Rumble in the Jungle before this documentary came out, but one need only watch it to see just how great Ali was (and always will be). As for the possibility that it meanders too much with the interviews, I say that it's good to get different people's insights into what an important part of our national heritage Ali is.So anyway, this is a documentary that I wholeheartedly recommend. Also featuring George Foreman (happy birthday, George!), James Brown (RIP), Spike Lee, B.B. King and Mobutu Sese Seko in footage.