After the brilliance of "Heat" and "The Insider", perhaps I was expecting too much of Michael Mann because his new film certainly isn't in that territory but still proves a very good biopic for fans of the famous boxer. Muhammed Ali was an American icon - loud, brash, arrogant and a show-off and yet h still had great talent, strength and conviction of character. While he is much loved in both the boxing world and America, those of us outside those fields still admire his achievements but don't look at him with the almost holy reverence his fans have. Consequently a lot of the information in this was new to me and quite a few surprises were in store.

Performances are excellent when they're given the time of day. From what I've seen Smith has got Ali's mannerisms, delivery, etc. down pat - he pulls of the showiness and arrogance, along with the naieveness of Ali during certain moments in his youth. Smith has trained hard for the part and it shows, although he doesn't look like he has that power that a more 'solid' figure like the real Ali had, he's still convincing enough to pull off the fights. This is helped due to some great cinematography at times which mixes film with unusual angles, and home digital video for some candid scenes. Voight is almost unrecognisable but quite lovable as reporter Howard Cosell, Nona M. Gaye runs rings around her female competition as Ali's second wife Belinda Boyd, Foxx is fine but the role isn't very exciting whilst the likes of Silver and Wright are more just there to be in the background than anything.

One clever idea is the opening which intercuts an almost strobish shot of a Smith made up to look in his early 20's hitting a punching bag with infrared home video of him jogging, childhood flashback scenes and a 60's concert. By doing this it skips a lot of the childhood elements, and storylines such as his dad's resentment of Islam are already played out within the first act. However skipping elements is where the film's main problem is, like the superior "Gandhi" production this just shows lots of well known events that happened without ever really exploring the details which make things interesting. The romance subplots for example are completely wasted - the women in his life appear, marry him and then disappear again (he seems to marry every girl he meets, spinsters take note) whilst the ending never resolves what happens to a domestic situation with Belinda.

The fights are well shot and choreographed but aside from his jumping around the ring style you never seem to get the hang of what he's aiming to do and one match has him seemingly against the ropes for every round for about 15 minutes - way too long for a movie. There's a surprisingly large amount devoted to his support of Islam, his conversion from Cassius Clay to Cassius X to Muhammed Ali, his refusal to join the Vietnam War and his fight against the Government to remain out of jail - again these are decent storylines but their resolution is somewhat abrupt and never goes into too much depth.

There's upsides though - Smith and Voight have great chemistry so Mann has included many scenes of them together and they work by breaking up the mood and giving the film some refreshing comedy. Other highlights include scenes in which Ali gives a much needed dressing down to Don King in public, and the inclusion of some surprisingly famous influences on the events in Ali's life ranging from a well played supporting role by Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X to essentially cameo appearances of the likes of great movement leaders like Martin Luther King, to unexpected appearances by corrupt dictators Joseph Mobutu and Idi Amin.

Overall though the film does cover the various key events in Ali's life well but never really goes about revealing the mystery and motivation behind the man, something the great 1996 doco "When We Were Kings" showed off much more. 'Ali' is a triumph for Smith who once again proves he can swap between solid dramatic acting and mainstream action with ease, a good but not great effort in regards to biopics, and somewhat of a disappointment for a Michael Mann film. With a long running time as well, this is a heavy film but most will think its worth the ride and I'd tend to agree.