Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist

First off, wow-what an amazing cast! The sheer amount of talent in the actors and actresses involved made this even more difficult to critique. With such a talented ensemble, I expected nothing less than perfection, which is why it was disappointing to see such a glaring oversight in the script. The dialogue just doesn't match the time period the mini-series was aiming for. At any point, did anyone stop and say, "Hey, somethings off and this doesn't feel right?" This inconsistency in language made it difficult to fully immerse myself in what should have been a home-run.

For me, the biggest draw to period pieces is the way they transport you back in time-not just visually, but through how characters speak, think, and interact with the world around them. This mini-series missed the mark in that aspect, which was unfortunate. That said, it's still entertaining in its own right, with strong performances and high production values.

Pretty good script, gripping story, all star cast, my biggest gripe is ALI!! This has to be the worst casting choice by far. This is really where it dropped the ball. The guy looks nothing like Ali, I could forgive it if he at least embodied him in cadence, or tone, he didn't. They should have looked for a better option. Don Cheadle , Samuel Jackson, Terrance Howard, Kevin Hart, all kill it. All in all very enjoyable and worth a watch, but reallly. Absolute worst Ali of all time, and he has been played by a lot of different people. You wonder if the casting director was too young to know or care about Ali.

The show was pretty good until the last episode; had it not been so obtuse I might have given 8 or 9 stars. The series stars (and is produced) by Kevin Hart and the cast also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Taraji P. Henson, and her Hustle & Flow castmate, Terrance Howard. The story takes place in 1970 in Atlanta the scene of a heavyweight boxing match with Muhamad Ali facing Jerry Quarry. It is based (loosley) on actual events. It stars Hart, known as "Chicken Man" who is a small time numbers runner and self-described entrepreneur who tries to organized a party with all of the country's biggest Black Gangsters who are in town for the fight. Cheadle plays an Atlanta cop who is assigned to be a bodyguard for Ali who arrested Chicken Man years earlier which resulted in a perison term.

While Chicken Man is putting together the party, there are others who plan to rob the party and now use Chicken Man as a fall guy. The story now is how to find the true robbers because everyone thinks Chicken Man was behind the robbery, the police and the big gangsters. Each episode was better than the previous one until episode 8, the finale. It was silly, unblieveable, and rushed. All in all I still agve it 7 stars. It is a watchable series in my opinion.

Fight Night is a true story about a huge armed robbery at a star studded after party following Muhammad Ali beating Jerry Quarry in a boxing match that was Ali's first match after the whole draft dodging incident. It has All-Star cast who are all at the top of their game here and all given enough screen time to shine. The show currently has a well deserved 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The entire cast is great but I have to point out two performances specifically. Samuel L. Jackson has had so many great and memorable roles over his hall of fame career and this is one of his better ones. He is fantastic in every scene. The other is Kevin Hart. Hart usually plays the same funny character in most of his movies but he brings a total different performance here and absolutely kills it. Then there's Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard and Tarija P. Henson who are all as good as ever.

Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist is a thrilling ride from the very start. It brings together one of the most talented ensemble casts of any show this year. It has a bunch of A-List movie stars at their best that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Kevin Hart, Tarija P. Henson, Terrence Howard, among others. It's impossible for a show to be bad with a cast like that, at the very least you're going to get good acting performances. There are also plenty of other great performances from lesser known actors which makes this show so good. But this is more than just the acting...the writing, production, directing, etc are all great. The terrific script gives all these stars a chance to do what they do best and I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these actors get nominated for their performances come award season.