Ich bin der Grösste

"The Greatest" is a most unusual biopic in that the subject, Muhammad Ali, actually plays himself in most of the movie. Now, at the beginning, when Cassius Clay wins the Olympic gold, he's played by a different actor. But then it switches in the early 1960s and Ali plays himself. Considering his bigger than life persona, it's not at all surprising he played himself in the picture.

As I mentioned above, the film follows Clay (later, Muhammad Ali) from his Olympic gold to his career at his peak in the 1970s. As a result, you learn little about his early life and don't get to see the sad decline late in his career...which is probably for the best.

So is the film any good? Well, Ali is very good playing himself...and he turns out to be quite a decent actor. The film is not perfect, as sometimes it glosses over Ali's weakness (the many women in his life...both wives and mistresses)...but it does hit important things such as his conversion to Islam, his refusal to fight in Vietnam and his major boxing matches. In the latter case, they chose to show footage of the actual matches and fortunately they don't show too much...choosing instead to focus on his life outside the ring...which was a good choice.

So is it worth watching? Yes. It's definitely a film for anyone who wants to see Ali at his best and most famous period of his life.

By the way, it didn't harm the film much but having James Earl Jones playing Malcolm X was a mistake. While an amazing actor, he didn't look nor talk much like the man. It is interesting they chose Jones, however, at he played Alex Haley who was interviewing Malcolm X in "Roots: The Next Generation".

I said several months ago that no one could play Ali except Ali. I was right. Muhammad Ali does a magnificent job playing himself in this movie. Maybe he's no actor, but in this case he accomplished what he set out to do, and he had several really effective scenes, such as when he explained why he didn't want to go to Vietnam, and the scene where Clay demanded that he no longer be called by that slave name.

This was the third film (as opposed to documentary) that I saw on the life of the great boxer. David Ramsey did an okay job in the first one, and Will Smith tried his best but didn't quite capture the champ as only the champ could. Smith may have been the best actor out of the three, and certainly his film was the best.

Chip McAllister made young Cassius Clay too much of a clown. He was okay, I guess, but the portrayal of the character improved dramatically at one point, and I also noticed the actor looked so much more like Clay. That's when I remembered: Ali himself was playing the character.

Ernest Borgnine did a capable job as Ali's trainer, but this was not one of his best performances. James Earl Jones did a fine job as Malcolm X, brief as the performance was.

I learned a few new details about Ali's life I didn't know before. I also found out that 'The Greatest Love of All' was written long before Whitney Houston made it a hit.

The main reason for watching this movie was Ali himself. He was the greatest.

Ali plays himself impressively in this biography of his remarkable boxing career. The greatest commands the screen alongside such actors as Robert Duval, Ernest Borgnine and James Earl Jones. The film is not as powerful, moving or exciting as it could have been and so is a slightly disappointing dramatization of a legendary boxing story. But, of course, just to see Ali doing what he does best (entertaining out of the ring as well as in) is a must for most. So, see it.

I have read some of the other reviews and their negative criticism of Ali's acting talents but the reality is Ali invented "hype" and "rapping" which both were reflected in this autobiographical film from his teenage years as the 1960 Boxing heavyweight Gold Medal winner through to his 1974 upset win of the heavy hitting George Foreman in Zaire, Africa.

Just like in all his incredible boxing matches this film packs a lot of punch in its.101 minutes of film run time. I wish people would look at what the film includes rather than what the film is lacking. Muhummad Ali was the greatest fighter and influential person of the 21st century. How can anyone say he is a bad actor when he is playing himself?

I loved Ali the fighter. I was his biggest fan. With that said, Muhammad wasn't very good in this film; playing himself! The only good thing about this movie are the real films of some of Ali's greatest boxing matches. The entire cast comes across as cartoonish, stereotyped, wooden and dull. Even Ali overplays himself and plays himself very badly. Forget this film and watch Ali's real boxing matches on dvd instead.