MovieChat Forums > Don King: Only in America (1997) Discussion > Realistic but a bad Ali

Realistic but a bad Ali

posted 18 years ago by merubin75
6 replies | jump to latest

Besides Ving Rhames' amazing performance, the thing that stuck out for me was the fact that *everyone* was a target. I think that was part of the point of the movie. He says at one point, "Y'all are part of the same hypocricy" as a wide indictment of *everyone*. I like the fact that the movie was produced and aired on HBO, yet he talks right to the camera at one point and says, "You HBO *beep*

The only downside to the film, in my opinion, was the guy playing Ali -- Darius McCrary. He was just awful. Not only did not not look anything like Ali, but he didn't even sound like him, either. Ali was larger than life, so I know it's hard for any actor to capture him perfectly, but this performance was beyond parody.

[–] wtfer420 17 years ago

yup the guy was trying way too hard to imitate Ali.
Will Smith played Ali great & didn't try to overly imitate him

The character that was dead on was Don King

[–] truehammer 15 years ago

Cant say I thought he was bad I thought he did a sterling job. Didnt like Will Smith's version although I didnt like the film Ali either.

"No kitty! This is my pot pie!"

[–] Kelea7 15 years ago

I thought he did pretty well. Inconsistent at times, but as far as the voice mostly I thought it was as good as Will Smith's which wasn't really good or bad either way in my opinion.

I do think Will is the better actor and overall he did a better job, but comparing the two is not really fair. Ali was about Will Smith and it went to theaters, this was made for hbo and it was about Don King.

And as far as looks Will Smith doesn't look at all like Ali. Actually Darius looks more like him to me. If a person can look past skin color and actually look at the face.

Although I guess I should have responded to the OP directly since we agree. But it's just a knee jerk reaction for me to just click reply. Oh well.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

[–] Sparky48 14 years ago

Hmm... I would disagree. True, Darius wasn't great in this role--and neither was Will Smith as Ali in my opinion--but he wasn't bad. During the period after Ali retired from boxing, such as the scene where he signed a settlement agreement before the notary public, I thought Darius did quite well in capturing Ali's slurred speech, an early symptom of his Parkinson's syndrome.

But you hit the nail on the head. Ali's image is so larger than life that it's extremely difficult for an actor to effectively portray him. That would probably explain why in the movie "The Greatest" (the first biographical movie ever made on Ali), the producers had Ali play himself.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] info-996-828544 10 years ago

For all our criticisms of the actor, I think he had the best line in the film:

If you can recall the scene where "Larry Holmes" is offering "Ali" money not to fight: He responds, "By the time Don King is finished with you, you wont have any money".