Big George Foreman – An Aggressively Average Biopic

Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World or simply titled on screen as Big George Foreman details the life and boxing career of the titular George Foreman (Davis). After overcoming a childhood marked by poverty, many hardships, and anger to become one of the most promising young boxers in the world, Foreman suffered a near-death experience in the ring and vows to never fight again becoming a Baptist minister and preacher. Years later, after seeing his community struggle and bankruptcy looming over his head, George reconnects with his old trainer Doc Broadus (Whitaker) and steps back into the ring in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship. Ultimately, the film is merely an aggressively average and extremely formulaic biopic that never quite reaches its full potential, but still will likely satisfy those who want to see Foreman’s story play out on the big screen. Even though it rises above just being fine or mediocre, it is still a passable biopic that is entertaining in spurts.

Big George Foreman makes one of the biggest mistakes a biopic that focuses on a life as extraordinary and eventful as George’s can make in that it attempts to show nearly every single detail of its subject’s life from early childhood to their later years and then some in the most generic and conventional fashion possible. Sometimes this can work but more often than not most biopics that do this lack focus and try to cram in way too much which this film is very much guilty of. Because of this, many crucial parts of Foreman’s life are glossed over or barely get any focus despite them having a major impact on both his real life and the film itself. A lot of sequences feel rushed, and some major events are only mentioned in passing or shown through a montage which leaves very little impact.

The film is rarely boring because of how much it attempts to cover and how fast the plot progresses but it also hardly ever gives audience to chance to get attached to any one element as it simply moves from one major life event to the next. Foreman is obviously the main focus of the film and is virtually every scene, but because the film is so heavily focused on him and his achievements and struggles, audiences don’t really get to know any of the people around him which makes the more emotional and character driven moments mostly ring hollow. The boxing scenes are fairly well filmed and entertaining enough to watch but it’s hard not to compare them unfavorably to something like Creed III which injected a lot more energy and style into its sequences and in comparison makes these ones come off as very forgettable and lightweight.

Even though this film doesn’t come close to reaching the greatness of other biopics or it’s subject, it is still serviceable and competently made. Davis delivers a very commendable performance as Foreman and is easily the best thing here. From his physicality to his actual performance, Davis truly becomes Foreman and carries this film on his shoulders from start to finish thanks to his likability and charm. Meanwhile, a majority of the supporting cast are criminally underused, but Whitaker and John Magaro are both solid and work well with Davis especially considering their limited screen time. Their relationship and every scene Davis and Whitaker share are easily when the film is at it’s absolute best and it should have focused a lot more on their friendship together and less on Foreman’s rivalry with Mohammad Ali (Sullivan Jones). Some of the more emotional moments of the story are undercut due to the film’s rushed pace, but there are some undeniably powerful and cheer worthy moments sprinkled throughout as the film does play out in a crowd-pleasing fashion that will certainly please most audiences and especially sports fans.

In the end, Big George Foreman would’ve been a lot better and much more memorable if it decided not to try and tell every single aspect of George Foreman’s life over the course of a 2+ hour film. In the end, the film is unfortunately nothing more than average at best but in spite of this, it still boasts some moments and a great lead performance from Khris Davis which in turn, rounds out to a decent experience overall.

still courtesy of Columbia Pictures

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Connor Carey

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