If there is anything you must know about the woefully banal biopic that is Big George Foreman, all you need to do is look at its full title which is actually the ridiculously long Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World. For practical reasons, most of the promotions for the film have the abbreviated title in large text with the rest tucked in smaller font underneath as it is hard to imagine anyone really remembering the full one. However, while this could easily be dismissed as posturing befitting of the way boxing itself is built around bravado, it ends up being revealing about the film itself. Both are overlong and lacking in even a sliver of subtlety, beating you over the head with its intentions just as its central character rains down punches in poorly choreographed sequences. The story of Foreman returning to compete in the ring after retiring is a remarkable one, but it is told here via painfully unremarkable filmmaking which crosses over into being downright manipulative with such shamelessness that it almost defies belief.
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Beginning briefly with Foreman as a young kid facing down bullies who ruthlessly taunt him, it quickly jumps ahead in time to pick up when he is closer to the towering figure who will soon step into the ring. Played by Khris Davis, most known for his recent roles in Judas and the Black Messiah and Atlanta, we see him first trying to steal from a stumbling patron of a local bar who wanders drunkenly through the streets. This turns out to be a trap and the man is a cop, leading to a chase sequence that concludes with Foreman having to smother himself in excrement to throw off a police dog looking for his scent. Perhaps this should have served as a warning for what was in store in the film as the smearing of fecal matter all over feels like an apt metaphor for the experience of watching it. Following this low point, Foreman decides to join the Job Corps where he meets Doc Broadus (Forest Whitaker) who takes him under his wing and begins training him to become a professional boxer. After some small initial struggles, he starts making a name for himself by winning first at the Olympics and then a run of fights that earn him the title of Heavyweight Champion of the World. When Foreman then has what he claimed to be a near-death experience following an eventual loss, he steps away from boxing to become a preacher as he believes he was saved by divine intervention.

Image via Sony Pictures

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Now, before getting too far into the film that unwisely attempts to cover basically all of Foreman’s life, this question of his faith is one that is fundamental to understanding what it is all going for. Where other recent films like Michael B. Jordan’s Creed III have expressed a clear interest in both pushing itself to shoot the fights in new ways while also exploring family dynamics, Big George Foreman seems largely uninterested in what should be fundamental components. The fights range from being barely serviceable to rushed and most of the characters, including Foreman himself at many moments, are only a few scatterings of traits as opposed to a full person. Increasingly, we realize that this is because the film is most interested in getting to the moment of revelation and is willing to sacrifice anything else that it takes to get there. If you’re looking for thrilling scenes of fights or ones between characters of genuine emotion, you best look elsewhere as Big George Foreman has no time for any of this. It will go through the motions just enough to check off all these elements, but it is really just about getting to the moments where it can literally begin preaching to you. This is not really even a complex exploration of faith and Foreman’s journey to get there, which happens almost with the snap of the fingers, as much as it is one that is a transparent means by which to proselytize. Even as Davis gives a dedicated performance that tries to bring something more complex to the experience, the hollowness at the film’s core undercuts him at every turn.

There is one moment that almost comes close to acknowledging this that could have become something potentially interesting. When Foreman discovers that one of the young people of his church who came to him for help is now in trouble after he had basically cast them aside, there is a scene that almost feels like it could start to uncover something a bit more introspective. It is introduced with the same tactlessness as everything else in the film, but there was still a sense it might start to go somewhere. What if part of Foreman’s faith was really all about himself and not really about helping those in community? Wouldn’t that be interesting to explore the contradictions of? Not to this film which subsequently just fixes this problem and moves on. What happened to that kid that moved Foreman to change in the span of a couple seconds? It’s truly anyone’s guess as he is merely but one of many means to an end in this story. Foreman’s first wife who he cheated on and the children that he had with her? They’re briefly revisited so that they can forgive him before vanishing entirely with the only real detail we got of her being that she was good at typing. When Foreman meets his next wife through his church, she is only just a bit more developed and mostly just sits on the sidelines cheering him on. When compounded by scenes that are often poorly constructed on both a technical as well as narrative level, a score that is just incessantly cloying, and some noticeably odd attempts at recreating real events, it’s a wonder it doesn’t all come apart.

Image via Sony Pictures

It can be said the film does indeed provide a full summary of Foreman’s recounting of the major events in his life where he comes out looking pretty great, but that hardly makes for a compelling work of cinema. If you were to take a step back to look at his story not just through his eyes, you would find that there have been some serious allegations of abuse made against the boxer. Obviously, Big George Foreman is not the first film to try to paper over the flaws of its central subject and it certainly won’t be the last. There just is something particularly calculated about this one, making it so you can’t help but see the strings holding everything up. It makes it so even the shortened title of Big George Foreman is itself not the best one for this film as it doesn’t ever really feel like a complex portrait of the man and his life. The more fitting one would be Who George Foreman Wants You To See as that would capture how this already superficial biography is much more of a shallow hagiography.

Rating: D-

Big George Foreman is in theaters now.