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Big George Foreman has the ridiculously long title of Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World.
From early on, where school-age George (Austin D Jones) is shunned by teachers because he’s poor, and can’t afford food at school lunchtimes, to later (played by Khris Davis – Judas and the Black Messiah), when getting in trouble with the law, but can’t see a good option for a career, he joins the Jobs Corp, where you can learn a trade like electrics, and how to get along with other people including fellow roommate Desmond (John Magaro – Crisis In Six Scenes) – the man who later becomes the manager of his finances… but this soon shows how predictable a film it can be, because when he says he’s put a lot of George’s money into “rock-solid stocks”, you can guess how that’s going to go, without any difficulty.
Along the way, he sort-of learns to box, whether it’s by hitting the bullies in his school, or chasing after a lad in Jobs Corp who’s stolen his trainers. Yes, he rather has an anger problem.
Then by becoming a sporting hero, he’s accused of being a sellout amongst white people, because he misses out on the 1968 Olympics, where Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised a Black power salute during the playing of the US National Anthem.
There’s a lot of 1970s music as we go into that decade, during which he embarks on Heavyweight fights against Joe Frazer in 1973, Muhammad Ali (Sullivan Jones – Harlem) in 1974, before moving on to others in the ’80s and early ’90s before his eventual return to attempting to win the World Heavyweight title at the age of 48 (that might technically be a spoiler, but if it is, you didn’t read the full title!)
But mid-way, when his star is on the wane and he believes he temporarily died after a fight, he suddenly gets religion, shouting, “Jesus Christ is alive in me!”
As such, he’s self-busted down from a megastar, to a typical Bible-basher ranting on the street, although does set up a Community Centre in the ’80s.
Also taking in his marriages to Paula (the stunning Shein Mompremier) and Mary Joan (Jasmine Mathews – The Tomorrow War), Shein certainly brings one of the stand-out performances in this film since, while biopics can be good without knowing a great deal about the person or the sport, the majority of Big George Foreman movie plays out like something between a school production and a Channel 5 afternoon TV movie, not something that’s a major theatrical film.
There’s a few good lines, such as when his Mum, Nancy (Sonja Sohn), wants to “Thank God for the food” on the table, leading to George interjecting that he paid for it, but overall, Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World is a bit of a dull trot through his life, and it’s so perfunctory in the telling, it makes you wonder why they bothered.
This was also my first (and probably last) trip to Cineworld Didsbury’s Superscreen, since I only went due to the fact that for last weekend only, it was no extra to pay for a ticket in there than it was for a regular 2D seat in one of the other rooms.
The seats don’t recline in Superscreen, which seems an odd design, given that it’s meant to be premium seating, as well as the fact that all other auditoriums do recline (except 4DX which just throws you about. Also, although it’s bigger, personally, screen 8 in this cinema is perfectly fine, since that’s their biggest screen, and when I go, I sit fairly close to the screen (row G in the Superscreen, and usually row E in screen 8). Additionally, as the credits begin, you get a bit blinded by the “Superscreen” lights in the room on the walls.
At least the sound isn’t buggered like with Screen 7 and Screen 6.
Big George Foreman is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Amazon Prime.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 129 minutes
Release date: April 28th 2023
Studio: StudioCanal UK
Format: 2.39:1 (Hawk V-Lite Anamorphics, Hawk C-Series Anamorphics)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 4/10
Director: George Tillman Jr
Producers: Peter Guber, David Zelon
Screenplay: Frank Baldwin, George Tillman Jr
Music: Marcelo Zarvos
Cast:
George Foreman: Khris Davis
Mary Joan: Jasmine Mathews
Muhammad Ali: Sullivan Jones
Archie Moore: Lawrence Gilliard Jr
Desmond: John Magaro
Rev. Virdell Stokes: Sam Trammell
Nancy Foreman: Sonja Sohn
Broadus: Forest Whitaker
Paula: Shein Mompremier
Angelo Dundee: Robert Cicchini
Howard Cosell: Matthew Glave
Mary Foreman: Erica Tazel
Dick Sadler: Dwayne Lamont Barnes
Roy Foreman: Deion Smith
Gloria Foreman: K Steele
Teenage George Jr: Austin D Jones
Teenage Mary Foreman: Jordan Yarborough
Sonny Foreman: Philip Allin Fornah
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.