Khris Davis (George Foreman) and Sullivan Jones (Muhammad Ali) in Big George Foreman, in theatres April 28.Alan Markfield/Sony Pictures
Big George Foreman
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
Written by Frank Baldwin & George Tillman Jr.
Starring Khris Davis, Jasmine Mathews and Forest Whitaker
Classification PG; 129 minutes
Opens in theatres April 28
There are two George Foremans as far as pop culture is concerned.
There’s the Foreman who is hunched over like your favourite uncle, smiling with his whole face, wearing both an apron and a generally inviting demeanour in commercials where he’s selling BBQ sauces or his world-famous grill. Then there’s the guy that came before, the one who fought in the Rumble in the Jungle, the famed boxing match depicted in movies like Ali or When We Were Kings. He’s big and stone cold. He has precious few and mostly unkind words. And he throws fists that can sound like they’re making the wind cry.
Both Foremans are represented in George Tillman Jr.’s mawkish and preachy new biopic about the born-again Christian heavyweight champion, played here by Khris Davis. The movie is about how Foreman went from being an African-American Ivan Drago, waving a flag for the U.S. imperial powers, to a goofy and grinning Tyler Perry character (think whichever one of Madea’s cousins mans the grill and keeps hot sauce in his pocket). In a late-’90s profile, ESPN described Foreman as transforming from “Mr. Mean to Mr. Clean.”
A strong filmmaking team could have made a meal of this story. Unfortunately, Tillman Jr. settles for a lousy boxing movie in service of a sermon. Big George Foreman is made under the Affirm Films banner, which is the faith-based arm at Sony Pictures. Foreman’s story is perfect fodder for their brand since the boxer and self-proclaimed repentant sinner credits his about face with a 1977 near-death experience, when he was 28 years old, in a locker room where he says he saw Jesus. He went on to devote his life to spreading the word of God, in the chapel and even in the ring.
I can’t believe Muhammad Ali – who famously ridiculed Foreman to the heavens before knocking him out during the Rumble in the Jungle – didn’t take credit for the boxer’s come-to-Jesus moment. I picture him boasting, “I knocked the devil out of George,” or something like that.
The movie tries to hit every note on Foreman’s Wikipedia page, handling his indiscretions (street violence and crime, infidelity) with kid gloves while banging hard on the inspirational and sentimental notes. Two women accused Foreman last summer of alleged sexual abuse when they were minors in the 1970s, which the preacher denies. Those details exist far outside the movie’s periphery.
The prologue about Foreman’s childhood makes loud and clear that poverty and its inherent trauma helped fuel his anger, locking-and-loading those fists. Few moments really capture the way those traumas also led to Foreman’s unintentionally awkward and cringe behaviour, like when the newly minted Olympic gold-medalist sports his prize around his neck on the streets as if it were bling.
Davis, a stage and film actor appearing regularly on Atlanta, has a hard time with Foreman, who is admittedly a challenge to play. The real-life figure has a distinct voice and facial expressions. Davis struggles to capture this beyond the bluntest terms in a movie that doesn’t make room for the actor to feel out the character and explore his contradictions and nuances. When Davis, as Foreman, smiles, it’s self-conscious and laboured in a way that I can’t even be certain is intentional.
Forest Whitaker acquits himself well given the movie’s limitations. As Foreman’s coach Doc Broadus, he just comes in and snaps on the gravitas like it ain’t no thang. Meanwhile, Tillman Jr., who also directed Soul Food, finds his element during a comedic montage when Foreman, after years of packing on weight, pushes himself to get back in the ring. It’s easy, low-brow – though not necessarily below-the-belt – humour, where Davis’s Foreman hoists his shorts up high and occasionally spews his guts out during a little exercise.
The huge fail with Big George Foreman is the fights. Tillman Jr’s. team seem to take a page from Foreman’s leadfooted fighting style. There’s sluggish camera work and awkward positioning. Instead of yelling ringside at the fighters, you’d be tempted to yell at the filmmakers to “put some life into those shots!” This is a movie about Foreman bringing religion into the ring, but it didn’t have to feel as solemn and slow as sitting through mass.
Special to The Globe and Mail