Movie Review: ‘Big George Foreman’

George Foreman's story is worthy of a movie, but the execution doesn't work and actor Khris Davis struggles to play the character in different time periods.

(L to R) Forest Whitaker and Khris Davis star in 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.' Photo: Alan Markfield. Copyright: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Opening in theaters on April 28th is the new boxing biopic ‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World,’ which chronicles the life of boxer George Foreman and was directed by George Tillman Jr. (‘The Hate U Give’).

Is 'Big George Foreman' based on a true story and what is the plot of the movie?

Yes! 'Big George Foreman' is based on the true story of boxing legend George Foreman who rose from poverty to win an Olympic gold medal and eventually the Heavy Weight Championship of the World, twice! The film chronicles his rise to fame, his devastating loss to Muhammad Ali, his decision to leave boxing to become a Baptist preacher, and his return to the ring at age 46 to win back his title and become the oldest Heavy Weight Champion in history.

Big George Foreman

"When life gives you a second chance, don't do it for yourself. Do it for everyone you love."

PG-132 hr 9 minApr 28th, 2023

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Big George Foreman Online

Who’s in the cast of ‘Big George Foreman?’

‘Big George Foreman’ stars Khris Davis (‘Judas and the Black Messiah’) as George Foreman, Jasmine Mathews (‘The Tomorrow War’) as Mary Jones, John Magaro (’The Big Short’) as Desmond, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (‘One Night in Miami’) as Archie Moore, Sonja Sohn (‘Bringing Out the Dead’) as Nancy Foreman, Sam Trammell (‘The Fault in Our Stars’) as Rev. Virdell Stokes, Sullivan Jones (’18 ½’) as Muhammad Ali, and Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker (‘The Last King of Scotland’) as Doc Broadus.

Initial Thoughts

While George Forman’s life story is absolutely worthy of the big screen treatment, ‘Big George Foreman’ is a disappointing biopic which fails to capture the majesty of the boxer’s life, particularly the intensity of his legendary fights. Khris Davis is adequate as Foreman, but struggles to find the heart of the character playing the role in several different time periods.

Khris Davis and director, George Tillman on the set of 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.'

(L to R) Khris Davis and director, George Tillman on the set of 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.'
Photo: Kyle Kaplan. Copyright: © 2023 CTMG, Inc. All Rights.

Story and Direction

George Foreman’s life story is a truly amazing one and very deserving of a biopic, in fact, I’m surprised it’s taken so long to get one. The movie chronicles his childhood in Texas, and his family’s struggle to survive do to poverty. Young Foreman is picked on by his classmates and eventually turns to violence to survive. The story then moves forward to his early 20’s where Foreman (now played by Davis) is committing crimes to get by. After a close call with the authorities, Foreman enrolls in a program called Job Corps, where he can receive his GED and learn skills for the workforce. But after a fight with one of the other students causes Foreman to almost be expelled, Doc Broadus (Forest Whitaker) takes an interest in George and begins to train him as a boxer.

The film then hits all the beats from Foreman’s professional life that boxing fans will recognize, winning Olympic gold, winning the championship from Joe Frazier, losing to Muhammad Ali at “The Rumble in the Jungle,” quitting boxing, becoming a Baptist preacher, returning to the ring to fight Evander Holyfield, and eventually winning back the championship at the age of 46. However, one aspect of the boxer’s life, his famous George Foreman Grill business is only mentioned in passing as a meta-joke for the audience. The film also ignores most of George’s four previous marriages, and only focuses on his relationship with current wife Mary Jones (Jasmine Mathews).

Director George Tillman Jr. is an accomplished filmmaker having delivered such movies as ‘Soul Food,’ ‘Men of Honor,’ ‘Faster,’ and the excellent ‘The Hate U Give.’ He is also no stranger to biopics having made ‘Notorious,’ which is the story of legendary rapper The Notorious B.I.G. However, with ‘Big George Foreman,’ the director fails to really capture the excitement and magnitude of Foreman’s struggles and accomplishments, which leaves us with a very “paint-by-numbers” biopic not unlike last year’s ‘Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.’ Both films chronicle the lives of their subjects well, hitting all of the important moments, but never giving us any insight or true understanding of the characters or the importance within those moments.

Khris Davis as George Foreman and Sullivan Jones as Muhammad Ali in 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.'

(L to R) Khris Davis as George Foreman and Sullivan Jones as Muhammad Ali in 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.' Photo: Alan Markfield. Copyright: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Boxing Scenes

What should have been the best and most exciting moments of the movie are relegated to cheap looking reenactments of famous fights we all grew up watching, either when they happened or on replays or YouTube. In fact, arguably the most important fight of Foreman’s career was “The Rumble in the Jungle” with Ali, which was watched by millions live, and has since been seen in its entirety in the Oscar-winning documentary ‘When We Were Kings.’ We all know what the arena looked like in Zaire, how many people were there in Africa watching it live, and the movie’s replication cannot hold a candle to the actual event.

I’m assuming that because of budget reasons it was impossible to make the crowds in those fights look realistic, but Tillman’s answer is to shoot in mostly close-ups, trying to mask the lack of audience with darkness and smoke, and it just comes off like a TV movie. Tillman does capture some great moments within the fights, like Ali’s rope-a-dope on Foreman, or Foreman’s rally at the end of the Holyfield fight, but otherwise the fight scenes are nothing spectacular, and don’t stand up to comparisons to other fight movies like Michael Mann biopic ‘Ali,’ which also features the Zaire fight, or recent boxing movies like ‘Southpaw’ and ‘Creed,’ and certainly not the documentary ‘When We Were Kings.’

Khris Davis stars as George Foreman in 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.' Photo: Alan Markfield
Copyright: © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Khris Davis’ performance

Actor Khris Davis gives an adequate performance as George Forman but struggles at times playing the character in different time periods. As the younger, 20-something version of George, the actor is quite good, playing the angry and quiet version of the character with strength and integrity. But you also don’t quite get an idea of who George really was at that time other than an angry young man, and the character becomes more lost as the movie goes on.

Davis physically transforms well into the older, bald, and overweight version of the boxer, the one most of us are more familiar with. But even then, Davis’ performance is lost underneath the characterization of Foreman, and becomes almost a cartoon character in the final act. Davis is believable in the fight scenes, even though I had issues with the way they were shot. But Davis’ best scenes are with Forest Whitaker, and the relationship between George and Doc is really the best part of the movie.

Who Plays Ali in ‘Big George Forman?’

But Davis is also very good when he is playing off of Sullivan Jones, who plays Muhammed Ali. While Ali is portrayed as the movie’s antagonist, as he should be in Foreman’s story, the two characters share a unique bond, which is sweetly demonstrated in the third act of the movie. Jones is quite good as Ali, portraying the boxer’s signature humor and bombastic personality, while still providing the humanity of the character. Again, this is George’s story, not Ali’s, but it is interesting to see the Zaire scenes play out from George’s point of view at the time, which is different than how they played out in real-life, as documented in ‘When We Were Kings.’ Sullivan is also believable in the fight sequences, and it doesn’t hurt that the actor does have a striking resemblance to the late GOAT.

I also must mention that besides Ali, the film fails miserably when it introduces actors as other really famous people. Michael Mann’s ‘Ali’ worked because they cast top actors like Jon Voight as Howard Cosell and Mario Van Peebles as Malcolm X. But ‘Big George Foreman’ does not have that luxury, and cast virtual unknowns as larger-than-life personalities such as Cosell or Johnny Carson. Because of the level of actor playing those roles, they look like cheap impersonations rather than actual fleshed out performances.

Forest Whitaker stars in 'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavy Weight Champion of the World.'

The Supporting Cast

‘The Wire’s Sonja Sohn gives a good performance as George’s mother Nancy, and has an excellent scene when she is advising her son, but unfortunately the role is somewhat limited. And ‘The Big Short’s John Magaro deserved a better role, as his character, George’s longtime friend and business manager Desmond, seemed more like an amalgamation of several people from George’s life and not an actual character. But Jasmine Mathews gives a very good performance as Mary Joan, Foreman’s wife, and has some powerful scenes with Davis despite her lack of screentime.

But, no surprise to anyone, the best acting in the movie is delivered by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker as Doc Broadus. Whitaker gives a very thoughtful and emotional performance, and the relationship between the boxer and trainer are really at the heart of the film. Boxing movie fans may have a bit of deja vu when they see Whitaker as Broadus, as the actor also played Jake Gyllenhaal’s trainer in ‘Southpaw,’ but the two characters could not be more different, and Whitaker’s performance, in some ways, saves ‘Big George Foreman’ from being a complete disaster.

Final Thoughts

In the end, George Foreman deserves a better biopic than this! While the real-life story is amazing, the execution of the acting, direction, and the fight scenes just wasn’t up to the level one would expect from a movie like this. While there were some good moments and strong performances from Jones and Whitaker, the movie fails to win any championships and is certainly no knock out!

‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World’ receives 4.5 out of 10 stars.

Other Movies Similar to ‘Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World:’

‘Rocky' (1976)
‘Rocky II' (1979)
'Raging Bull' (1980)
'Rocky III' (1982)
‘Rocky IV' (1985)
'Rocky V' (1990)
'When We Were Kings' (1996)
'The Boxer' (1997)
'Ali' (2001)
'Million Dollar Baby' (2005)
'Cinderella Man' (2005)
'Rocky Balboa' (2006)
'The Fighter' (2010)
'Real Steel' (2011)
'Southpaw' (2015)
'Creed' (2015)
'Creed II' (2018)
'Creed III' (2023)

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'Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World' is produced by Mandalay Pictures, Affirm Films, Sony Pictures, and State Street Pictures, and is scheduled for release on April 28th.