Previous film by George Tillman, Jr. The hate you give (2018) was a provocative, thoughtful investigation into police brutality against black Americans. IN Great George Foreman He speaks to the hulking heavyweight champion from the gritty streets of Houston, Texas, a living folk hero in the black American community.
Created by the former boxing champion himself, this is a bombastic, upbeat biopic that moves from formally entertaining to downright formal. He takes important moments in Foreman’s life and laboriously works his way through them.
Foreman would, of course, fight Muhammad Ali in the famous 1974 jungle fight, lose, rename a Christian youth pastor, and then reclaim the title at age 45 and become the oldest heavyweight champion in history. This is a real comeback story.
The film opens with an initially convincing image of a large and malnourished child growing up angry and unkempt; Austin David Jones plays the teenage Foreman, and Chris Davis plays him as an adult. He and his siblings are loved by their godly mother (Sonya Son), but there is not enough money.
The trajectory of his life changes when he meets his pushy future boxing coach Doc Broadus (Forrest Whittaker, aptly Sage) and begins to learn to turn his street fighting tendencies into something more focused, climbing the ranks in a way that was unthinkable back then. : Win Olympic gold, go pro and beat Smoking Joe Frazier to become heavyweight champion.
Unfortunately, the film is spoiled by very frank texts. Davis does a good job with a script that borders on the ridiculous at times (“He made a dope rope… and I’m a fool,” I was very impressed), but for a film that’s over two hours long, it quickly surpasses its salutation. In his attempts to cover such a wide range of events in Foreman’s personal and professional life – from his unexpectedly profitable barbecue business to his romance with two women in parallel with his boxing career – Tillman Jr. never finds a good pace.
Even after two hours, it feels like a ‘big hit’, touching on tactile items rather than giving any real sense of impact or psychology. The boxing scenes are also unimaginative and, aside from the occasional slow motion or cart shots, appear visually bland.
Great George Foreman — just like the man himself — is hard to actively reject, but suffers from the mediocrity inherent in so many sports biopics that have little to say about their plots other than overcoming adversity.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.