Review: 'I Am Ali', a Film by Clare Lewins

We are at a weird time here with professional sports in the United States. It seems like each week we hear of another scandal of sports figures that are in some sort of issue of domestic violence, child abuse, or some drug-related crime and this past spring we had to deal with racism from an owner of a NBA team.  With all this stuff going on much of the time, the biggest sports stars, and even some of the retired ones, stay silent or say even more problematic things when asked about it. So with all this going on it was really good to sit down and see I Am Ali to harken back to a time before myself when Black sports figures, because of their celebrity, had to help uplift and stand for things that would help us all and there really is no better person in that than Muhammad Ali.

I Am Ali is different type of documentary about the legendary boxer and sports figure from the 20^th century. Unlike past documentaries about him that usually focused on his fights and comebacks, this one takes another path. It decides to focus on the person that he is and how he got to that from being a young kid to having a career later in life. Director Clare Lewins achieves this by using personal family recordings of Ali and his children along with tons of personal film recordings and other clips from the media to tell this story. This film uses a style reminiscent of the documentary Marley by also having interviews with people close to Ali like his daughters, brother, ex-wife, etc., and other sports figures or people influenced by him like Jim Brown and Mike Tyson. 

The one thing I feel this film does really well is that it tries to give you a well-rounded picture of the man and the times he was in. Balancing it with testimonials that aren't the usual look at just how great a boxer he was. The film is more about what he believed and what he was thinking about, which brings something new to the table. This film could really be used to introduce younger people to him that really have no knowledge of Ali in this current state of just Money Mayweather or UFC.

With that being said, some interviews are more enlightening than others. Hearing Jim Brown speak on Ali was interesting because they both were important to the pro-movement at the time. And to hear him speak on his friendship with Ali was something I didn’t even know. The interviews with his children Maryum, Muhammad, and Hana along with the recordings of them as children added the right amount of personal flair to really hold the film together like thread tying the different eras of his career together.

The one thing that I’d say was a flaw is that the film is about 95% positive in talking about Ali to the point where it feels they are talking about a demigod. Now, Ali is a great person but he is a human being and he had flaws. There is a little touch on this at the end after talking to his ex-wife Veronica Porche when she makes a comment about his infidelity. Now I don’t want some great trashing moment of his character but I do wish that had been explored a bit more to make it a better-well rounded film. Some more talk about each of his wives if possible would’ve helped.

Overall I Am Ali is a great film about a very influential person that inspired a lot of people all across the globe.  I Am Ali is something that should be seen and shown to as many people as possible who don’t know Muhammad Ali.

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Ang Lee's Next Film to Explore Boxing's Greatest Fights in 3D

One of the biggest question marks going into last year's Life of Pi was how Ang Lee would acclimate himself to the use of 3D, a technology he was completely unfamiliar with at the time. Turns out he handled it quite well, so well that he won an Academy Award for directing, and the film went on to bust $600M at the box office. And now it appears that Lee has become a total convert to the benefits of 3D, because he'll explore it further in his next project centered on some of boxing's greatest fights. That's right, he's making a boxing movie.

The Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon will trade in the martial arts for the sweet science of boxing, covering the sport from the 1960s through the '70.  Written by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon), it will focus on some of the sport's most iconic rivalries, including the "Thrilla in Manilla" between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, which will be recreated in 3D. It's unclear how the narrative will work, but somehow it will connect all of these fights together. Lee will also serve as a producer, and it seems that he's working to be on the cutting edge of 3D technology in the same way as James Cameron.

Boxing is an incredibly visual sport and makes for some of the most iconic sports movies, so there's great potential for this to be on the level of films like Raging Bull and Rocky. No word on when filming will begin, but I'm intrigued to see what Lee has up his sleeve. [Deadline]

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Antoine Fuqua's boxing drama 'Southpaw' picked up by The Weinstein Company

Even before he had signed on to direct Olympus Has Fallen, Antoine Fuqua had a ton of projects at various stages of development. The one that sounded the most promising for a time was Southpaw, a boxing drama initially pegged for Eminem to star, and it seemed like a natural fit. The film is basically 8 Mile with a pair of boxing gloves, but for whatever reason Sony and MGM couldn't get rolling on it, putting it on ice last spring.

But now The Weinstein Company have stepped in before the 10-count, snagging the rights to and pushing full steam ahead to begin production later this year. Eminem has since moved on, and casting talks to replace him are already underway. Written by Kurt Sutter (Sons of Anarcy), the story follows a lefty welterweight boxer who fights his way to the championship and wins back the love of his daughter while enduring personal tragedies.

We'll see if this finally happens, although with Fuqua's backlog of projects who knows if he'll even stay attached. He's got the heist film, Chicagoland; a Miles Davis biopic with Don Cheadle; an adaptation of Storming Las Vegas; a possible Chinese Tang Dynasty epic; and he's even been rumored for the 24 film. [LA Times]

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Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro to square off in boxing comedy, 'Grudge Match'

If boxing heavyweights Rocky Balboa and and "Raging Bull" Jake LaMotta were to meet in their prime, who would win? Obviously, that's a question we could never know the answer to since one is completely fictional, but the thought of the men who embodied those characters on screen duking it out in a film was one that had me and plenty of others very excited two years ago. It was back in 2010 when we first learned about Grudge Match, which was rumored to have Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro as two aging boxers who plan one final fight against each other, 50 years after their first epic clash. It's Raging Bull vs. Rocky. What's not to love? Unfortunately we didn't hear much about it since, but now it looks like Stallone and De Niro are finally ready to step into the squared circle.

The Wrap reports that both actors are in negotiations to star, with production to kick off early next year. Peter Segal(Get Smart) will direct, with Entourage co-creator Doug Ellin providing the latest version of the script.  Segal doesn't inspire much confidence behind the camera, but Ellin is a smart writer who knows the comical ins and outs of celebrity, so if he can weave some of that into this story it could be a major win.

One thing that's new to me is that this is being billed as a comedy, which makes me even more excited for it. Some of my favorite comedies have been centered on the sweet science of boxing, such as The Great White Hype and Play It To the Bone. With Stallone and De Niro obviously playing off their most iconic roles, this could possibly be better than both.

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