I’ll just come out and say it: Ali may be Michael Mann’s most disappointing film. It’s not necessarily his worst, but considering how fascinating this man’s life was, and how great his previous film The Insider turned out, this should have been a knockout but ended up totally forgettable and quite frankly boring.
A triumphant moment by one of my favorite directors.It’s just too bad that the movie lost some steam after that.But back to that moment. It definetely told the story of the odds that Ali was up against growing up.
It also showed what spurred a lot of his future beliefs.
Yea this movie definitely grew on me after a while. From what I’ve heard it had a lot of issues during the screenwriting phase. That might have affected the final product somehow, I don’t know.
Thanks for putting this up. I still think this is one of the most well-edited sequences of all time. So well-paced, so much information stuffed into 9 mins in a cohesive fashion, and just really engaging overall. Plus I’m a huge Sam Cooke fan.
Bob McBob
If Michael Mann just removed a few curse words from the film, and thus reduced the MPAA rating from R to PG-13, “Ali” would have been seen by many more people; it’s a shame how stubborn directors can be about trivial elements of their films.
Why else has this film gone so unappreciated?
Hisham Teymour
Kris,
Seeing you recognize one of the best movie sequences of the past decade makes me all the more excited to read your “best of the decade” column in December.
They’re already counting down personal decade lists on At the Movies. I’d love to see how yours compares.
Comments
7 responses to “Apropos of nothing”
I’ll just come out and say it: Ali may be Michael Mann’s most disappointing film. It’s not necessarily his worst, but considering how fascinating this man’s life was, and how great his previous film The Insider turned out, this should have been a knockout but ended up totally forgettable and quite frankly boring.
A triumphant moment by one of my favorite directors.It’s just too bad that the movie lost some steam after that.But back to that moment. It definetely told the story of the odds that Ali was up against growing up.
It also showed what spurred a lot of his future beliefs.
I’m specifically talking about this opening, FYI, but the film, which I didn’t respond to fully at first, grows fonder and fonder in my mind.
not as good as his previous effort, but I’ve always felt this was an unfairly maligned film!
Yea this movie definitely grew on me after a while. From what I’ve heard it had a lot of issues during the screenwriting phase. That might have affected the final product somehow, I don’t know.
Thanks for putting this up. I still think this is one of the most well-edited sequences of all time. So well-paced, so much information stuffed into 9 mins in a cohesive fashion, and just really engaging overall. Plus I’m a huge Sam Cooke fan.
If Michael Mann just removed a few curse words from the film, and thus reduced the MPAA rating from R to PG-13, “Ali” would have been seen by many more people; it’s a shame how stubborn directors can be about trivial elements of their films.
Why else has this film gone so unappreciated?
Kris,
Seeing you recognize one of the best movie sequences of the past decade makes me all the more excited to read your “best of the decade” column in December.
They’re already counting down personal decade lists on At the Movies. I’d love to see how yours compares.