Don King: Only in America

Don King is a self-promoter the likes that few have seen in our lifetime. This film takes a novel approach to telling the King story, blowing KING up into as big a buffoon as possible, and using King himself (actor Ving Rhames) in telling the tale. I give director John Herzfeld credit-it's a novel and appropriate approach to the biography of a man who truly is more caricature than real.

Rhames gives an inspired and convincing performance as King, breathing much life into a film from a book that was for all practical purposes stillborn.

Enjoy the movie for Rhames and pay little attention to the details.

The best thing to be said for this film is that Ving Rhames, usually a supporting player, gets a role he can really sink his teeth into. He alone tries to carry the film with his charismatic, vivid performance. The film itself is typical made for tv fare-conventional, fairly unimaginative cinematically, competent enough to be semi-entertaining.

Ving Rhames, a largely unknown actor, whom most would remember from Pulp Fiction, gives his role of Don King all he's got, and it really does pay off. It results in one of the decade's best telemovies, leaving the viewer hating yet strangely drawn toward the eccentric King.

It revolves around King's rise to stardom through strongarm tactics. His violent itchy trigger finger deals it's wrath to anyone who gets in the way, and it's his no nonsense approach to boxing which gets him where he is.

The story is revealed through flashbacks, being narrated by an older King. Those are the film's funniest moments. Watching Rhames strut around the ring, whilst smoking a huge cigar and speaking in a near-scream make for extremely humourous moments. Rhames' conviction to the part makes King a character that's both funny and threatening at the same time. He relishes in hyperbole, taking the good with the bad and seeing what you get.

The idiosyncrasies and mannerisms of King are all portrayed masterfully, right down to the wavy Kramer hairstyle. Each of the supporting characters are great, but, watching Jaleel White (that guy from 'Family Matters') play Muhammed Ali just reminds you too much of his sitcom character.

It's a highly satisfying, yet powerful movie. One of the telemovies which can be recommended, which is a rare occasion. This would be a wise choice if Saturday night's viewing is not up to standard.

Nine out of ten.

the quality of this movie surprised me. The editing, dialogues, and screenplay flow is superb. Tough for an actor to act to be Don King, an actor himself. Learned new english words too: "tried to DISMERCIFY me". I would reccomend that the viewer see first "When We Where Kings", the documentary of the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire, because a good 20 minutes of this movie re-enacts many scenes straight from the documentary. There are imaginative scenes and dialogues: how the character impersonating Don King talks to the camera [audience] saying how HBO is making a movie on him; stunning beginning in which a scene from the past is bridged to the present zooming in on the footsteps on a stairway, then zooming out to see the entire figure walking of a much older person.

The life of boxing promoter Don King was/is so varied and complicated that I would have thought that a low budget TV movie would struggle with it. But hats off to the producers and HBO, while not having fortunes to spend they have covered most of it competently and in Ving Rhames they have a fantastic star performance. In fact it is hard to tell him from the real thing!

As we know, boxing has a seamy side, but King seems to the kind of person that pushes the boundaries of even this biz. His silver tongue (he did a lot of reading in prison) tricks many a young boxer in to signing or doing what he wants.

From jailhouse to courthouse to penthouse Don has a quality that many an eel would admire. Somehow he always comes back from any setback and seems to be able to actually to turn anything to his own advantage. If you didn't know a lot of this was true you would call it over-the-top!

His early life as a numbers runner is not glossed over, although he portrays himself as being in the "hope business" and doing people a big favour. Even in charity he thinks of only one thing - himself.

This is great black (in more senses than one) comedy and provides many belly laughs - his treatment of Larry Holmes is a gem, even turning up with a contract on this honeymoon!

You don't have to be a boxing fan to enjoy this movie, but it helps. Boxing scenes are well recreated and the star performance by Rhames (who usually plays straight-ahead bad guy roles) is worth tuning in for all by itself. Very enjoyable and far more entertaining than many boxing films with several times the budget.