zonkerjohn

First, I am as big a Foreman fan as their is and got my picture taken with him. I have read all his books. I read everything I can on the internet, so I know his story quite well. So, I really wanted to like this movie. George Carlin used to talk about the worlds worst doctor? Well, somewhere in the world is the worlds worst actor, and I we just found him. I introduce to you Khris Davis, who played George Foreman. He basically had one expression, and that was to look like he was deep in thought. He did not come close to portraying the menacing Foreman, who in his early days literally said he wanted to kill his opponent. Perhaps I knew the story too well, but Davis does a horrible job of portraying the two parts of Foreman, (pre and post religious conversion). The production was bad also. The fight scenes were done poorly, and I could not help but feel the whole time that I was rereading his wiki page. Obviously, a biography has to tell the true story (and that they did), but it was just hard to emotionally connect to anybody or anything in the movie. Todays standards have mightily fallen. Directors like George Tillman, Jr. Could have never survived back in the day. If you do not know most of the story of Big George, perhaps you might get something out of this.

This movie was great from start to finish. I really don't understand why there are just 17 user reviews as I write this. The acting was first rate. Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier were excellent, and Calvin Lockhart and John Amos were very good in their respective roles. This is not to take away from the rest of the cast.

Sidney Poitier did a fine job with the directing. Curtis Mayfield wrote a first rate film score for this movie, including the hit "Let's Do It Again".

It was a funny movie also. Generally, when I like a comedy, it is more for the plot in general as opposed to the actual comedy, but this made me laugh out loud quite several times.

But the biggest thing? It was just a well written, CLEVER script that kept you wanting more. When you have boxing, gambling, underdogs, and hypnotiism with good writing, its a cant miss. I have seen it at least a dozen times, and never tire of it.

OK, first the good. it was a cute story with charming actors and it kept your attention. Woody Harrelson did a good job as the teacher, and had some witty lines. The not so good. I thought her acting was poor. I looked at many other reviews, (most of the bad ones) and nobody mentioned her acting. I am no expert, but it just seemed to me that at various times she was TRYING to act. almost as if she was playing a parody of herself. That is fine if the movie is supposed to be a parody. I thought the same thing could be said about Teresa Palmer in'the Choice'. but if you are good looking, and/or in the case of Steinfelds case have a movie under your belt (True Grit), you can get away with anything, and more so when people expect you to be good, they see only the good. the movie also did a poor job of really zoning in on the true issues that face most teenagers. the potential was there for a good movie, but it really was not brought home.