Big George Foreman
Cert: 12A| ★★★✩✩

Before his name became synonymous with the bestselling fat-reducing grill, boxer George Foreman was best known for making one of the most unlikely comebacks in the history of the sport.

In a film produced by the boxer himself, director George Tillman Jr delivers a passable, if a little one-sided account of the man’s life and enduring rivalry with fellow boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

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Jasmine Mathews and Khris Davis (Sony Pictures)

The film follows Foreman (Khris Davis) as he overcomes a childhood marked by poverty in 1960s Texas to become an Olympic gold medallist at the Mexico City Games in 1968.

Years after his loss to Ali (Sullivan Jones, brilliant) in their much-publicised Rumble in The Jungle encounter in Zaire, Foreman suffers a near-death experience in the ring and vows never to fight again, becoming a baptist preacher.

After a series of failed investments by long-time friend and accountant Desmond (a composite character played by acclaimed Jewish actor John Magaro) and with bankruptcy looming,
Foreman is forced back into the ring and triumphs to become the oldest boxer in history to win the heavyweight championship.

Despite some great performances throughout, Big George Foreman feels like the white-washed history of a man whose failure to beat his most staunch rival consumed his entire life.
Tillman, who made waves with the award-winning The Hate U Give in 2018, here delivers a trope-heavy rags-to-riches-and-back-again tale.

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A scene from Big George Foreman (Sony Pictures)

Davis is impressive as Foreman, but just as in real life, it is Sullivan Jones as the charming and hubris-fuelled Ali who steals every scene from under him. Magaro, known for his impeccable turn in Kelly Richard’s First Cow, is sadly wasted here.

While not entirely without merit, this movie feels a little too well packaged to fully take its place in the hall of fame of boxing biopics. I am sure that there is a great story to be told regarding the fascinating Foreman/Ali rivalry, but we might have to wait a little longer to see it.