Michael Mann and Will Smith deliver a knockout. "ALI" is worthy of it's praise

"Ali" opens with soul and rhythm and carries it through the entire picture. The movie begins in 1964 and tells the story of the next ten years in the life of Muhammad Ali, of course back in 1964 he was still known as Cassius Clay a 22 year old up and coming heavyweight.

Will Smith shines in a role that appears as though he was meant to play. He carries himself with the same brash, bravura style to make you as a viewer forget that it is Will Smith on the screen. Ali pours from his body, voice and eyes. It is almost eerie in parts, Smith pulls of the voice so well that if you closed your eyes and just listen you would swear that it was Ali himself talking.

Now I must state that I wasn't born until 1970 so I only know about the young Ali from what my parents have told me and from what I have seen on television. I can tell you that it must have been a trip watching this young man become such a beacon of hope for so many.

Michael Mann who gave us "The Insider" has once again taken a true story and made an epic movie about an epic human being. Mann uses music and visuals like very few other directors. He moves us from the Clay years to the changes Ali went through with his friendship with Malcolm X, played by Mario Van Peebles and the Nation of Islam. He takes us on the journey of Ali's refusal to be drafted and his fight for his freedom. But what we really get to see is how Ali felt that he was his own boss. He may not have believed in Jesus as he was raised so he joined the Nation of Islam and went along with those beliefs. But in the end it was Ali doing and living how Ali wanted to live.

The movie is helped along by having people give brilliant performances, one after another. First off Smith should see an Oscar nomination coming his way, and he could be joined by Jon Voight who was, in every sense of the word, Howard Cosell. Jamie Foxx as the rhyme in Ali's corner with Ron Silver's reason. Foxx plays Drew "Bundini" Brown and Silver plays legendary corner man Angelo Dundee. We even get a hint of the early Don King.

For almost three hours you get Will Smith giving his soul to ten years of Muhammad Ali's life and at the end you know that there is much more to tell about the man that is known as "The Greatest".