Review by Big George Foreman

Ironically, for a man recently famous for grilling, there’s nothing very subtle about this two-hour-plus born biopic of a boxer, who falls into the familiar trap of counting too much, and then not counting enough. Spanning over half a century of timeline, it strives to tell the remarkable comprehensive story of George Foreman (played by an excellent Khris Davis), the heavyweight boxing champion turned world preacher and world champion again.

The cinematic journey makes sense: Foreman is a terrific character. He had a troubled and sometimes violent childhood; he won an Olympic gold medal less than a year into his boxing career; he won the world heavyweight title at age 24; he became parish priest after having had two religious experiences; and he made an unprecedented comeback to the sport at 40, becoming the oldest world champion in history. He had, by all accounts, a rather extraordinary life.

Perhaps that’s why it’s a bit of a shame that director George Tillman Jr. largely opts for the ordinary, choosing to play by conventional biographical rules. Most of his successes are cast in the overly conscious irony of historical foresight, with the script always pointing out that everyone underestimated George (except God, of course). But what kind of guy is he? Toward the end of the film, George is said to have named his six children George, plus a daughter named Georgetta. He doesn’t square with the George we’ve spent screen time with – where was that weird goofball? The pacing of the narrative means that his motivations (Foreman had anger issues as a young man) seem blurred, barely scratching the surfaces.

Like its leading lady, the film is sincere and loving, almost to the point. It is clearly a film made with the utmost respect for its subject and one that is sure to delight fans. Foreman himself is listed as executive producer in the credits, sometimes indicating which details are omitted and which are not; only two of Foreman’s four wives are considered worthy of inclusion, for example, and one of them courts, marries and divorces her in the span of about ten minutes.

While Foreman’s frantic ride through life might give you a boost, the boxing scenes, surely the centerpiece of a film like this, are also a bit lacking. Tillman Jr is clearly a fan of Neil Leifer’s famous aerial shot of a boxing ring, but even with the odd stylistic flourish, he can’t escape genre tropes; Slow-motion punches, flying beads of sweat, and a training montage are rarely far away. He is emblematic of a film that sucks too often.