Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

jfarms1956 The Greatest is a movie that can be best appreciated by those who are 18 and older. The movie discusses more than black and white issues. The movie depicts the fighter, Mohammad Ali as truly a unique individual in this biographical sketch of the period of between Cassius Clay returning to America from the Olympics after winning his gold medal through his transformation into Mohammad Ali and his boxing bouts with Frasier and Forman. Mohammad Ali lived true to his convictions. The movie portrays him as a man who knew what was right, knew what he wanted, and most importantly, knew how to get it. The Greatest also tells of his fight with the US Army and his refusal to be inducted into the Armed Forces. The movie requires your full attention. It is unusual that the star of the movie is the man the movie is about. How does one "act" to be oneself. The movie has a decent storyline. The movie requires your full attention and there is no time for popcorn here. Save it for after the movie when discussing the movie with friends.

James Byrne THE GREATEST is a lamentable attempt to chronicle the tumultuous life and career of self-proclaimed 'Greatest boxer of all-time', Muhammad Ali, between the fourteen year period of his 1960 olympic success and regaining the world title against George Foreman in 1974. This flat, boring and unrealistic mess fails in every department, it doesn't entertain the movie fan, or enlighten the boxing aficionado. Ali plays himself - and doesn't do a very good job of it. The spontaneity, charisma, energy and humour that Ali displayed in his televised real life press conferences is sadly missing from his screen performance. What we get is a subdued, below-par Ali, sometimes mumbling and slurring his lines, making hard work of Ring Lardner's lackadaisical script and the inept direction of Tom Gries. James Earl Jones, who has a very brief cameo as Malcolm X, summed up Ali's acting ability with succinct honesty: 'Given his own words, he was a great performer, but given somebody else's words there was a self-consciousness that he was unable to overcome. Ali wasn't a great craftsman in the art of acting'.Jones doesn't come out of this movie with much credit either. He's much too bulky and aged to convince as the dynamic Malcolm X. The only really good performance comes from Ben Johnson as the head of the syndicate who sponsor Ali after his olympic triumph. Johnson once starred in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, in which a world heavyweight boxing champion, Primo Carnera, spars with a gorilla, the irony of which was not lost on me as I viewed this movie - given Ali's nickname for his bitter ring rival Joe Frazier.In between the Acting-By-Numbers sequences, clips of Ali's real fights are shown. Grainy b/w footage of Ali battering Lamar Clark, Archie Moore and Willie Besmanoff, plus a montage in colour of his comeback bouts against Buster Mathis, George Chuvalo, Jerry Quarry, Floyd Patterson, Bob Foster, Joe Bugner and Ken Norton. What I found interesting was seeing his old amateur foe and gym-mate Jimmy Ellis once again sparring with Ali just before the second Norton fight. Ellis was one of the very few boxers to beat Ali as an amateur, in 1958 at Louisville.There is a dedication at the end of the movie to director Tom Gries, who sadly died immediately after filming was completed. For a far better tribute to Gries talent, see the great Charlton Heston western WILL PENNY.

Theo Robertson After seeing several disappointing biopics featuring Ali I have no fear in saying this is one of the better movies featuring the great man . The film is helped by a script that tells of young Clay`s struggle against prejudice and discrimanation without going overboard , and the script to its credit doesn`t concern itself with deep discussions of Ali`s psyche unlike a few movies I could mention , here the script just concentrates itself with hard facts . By a strange irony the film is less effective when Ali appears playing himself but that`s probably down to Ali having a bit too much fun reliving his past like turning up at Sonny Liston`s house at the dead of night to throw insults , but you can`t really blame Ali for enjoying himself , he was a remarkable man who had many remarkable moments in his life You probably won`t learn anything new about Ali watching this film , but you can be certain that it`s all true

lawrence-14 Ali plays himself impressively in this biography of his remarkable boxing career. The greatest commands the screen alongside such actors as Robert Duval, Ernest Borgnine and James Earl Jones. The film is not as powerful, moving or exciting as it could have been and so is a slightly disappointing dramatization of a legendary boxing story. But, of course, just to see Ali doing what he does best (entertaining out of the ring as well as in) is a must for most. So, see it.