Will Smith's impression of the self-proclaimed "Greatest," Cassius Marcellus Clay. For entertainment purposes, it can't touch Billy Crystal's impression of him. (Though, for those same purposes, there can be no quibble with Jon Voight's Howard Cosell: a glued-on nose as phony as the hairpiece.) The two-and-a-half-hour skim through the prime of his life, from the first Liston fight through the Foreman (shy of the third Frazier fight, the "Thrilla in Manila," worthy of an entire movie unto itself), is processed through Michael Mann's cinematic Mixmaster: desaturated color, gilded color, frosted color, blue-rinsed color; Steadicam, unsteady cam, bob-and-weave cam, float-like-a-butterfly cam. These stylistic pretensions, coupled with the historical-sociological-cultural-epical pretensions, dampen what might have been an agreeable stroll down Memory Lane in the company of one of the great sports figures of the 20th Century. Possibly, yes, the greatest. With Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Wright, Ron Silver, Jada Pinkett Smith. (2001) — Duncan Shepherd
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