BEFORE: Michael Papajohn carries over again from "Hangman" - I'm celebrating the work of a (I'm guessing here) under-appreciated character actor. He played a police officer in "Unhinged" and he's playing a similar role tonight. Really, if he's done his job well then you might not even notice him - but he had a small but pivotal role in yesterday's film which I don't even want to mention, because spoilers. But he'll be here tomorrow, too, playing an Olympic coach. So thanks to him for making this portion of my chain possible by playing so many diverse roles in different films.
I'm losing a bunch more links to both horror AND romance films tonight, but those are the breaks. I only keep track of such things because next year I'll need to find ways to link to and from those sections, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, I can't let that stop me from watching a film that the linking clearly wants me to work into the chain.
THE PLOT: Fueled by an impoverished childhood, George Foreman channeled his anger into becoming an Olympic gold medalist and World Heavyweight Champion, followed by a near-death experience that took him from the boxing ring to the pulpit.
AFTER: This one's been on the list for a while, a little over two years I guess, but since George Foreman died back in March there's been more of an impetus to get to it. Really, I think this is the first chance I had to link to it, but it links back to so many other films I watched this year, really, how can that be true? I guess because I would have needed both an intro link and an outro one, and several times over, this just wouldn't have taken me in the general direction I wanted to go in. OK, so I'll just stash it between two other films with Michael Papajohn and we can finally cross it off the watch list.
It seems only fair, I watched how many movies about Muhammad Ali, both fictional and documentary, but it feels like we only need to devote one film and one slot to Mr. Foreman. Well, he wasn't the heavyweight champion for as long a period of time as Ali was, and I think Ali retook the championship belt three times, as opposed to Foreman's two. But George Foreman was the oldest person to ever become W.H.C., despite the fact that Ali was seven years older, all the times they fought. Yeah, that's how age works, once you're seven years older than someone else, you tend to stay that way. It's funny, because I would have thought that Foreman was older than Ali, just because Foreman didn't age as well, lost his hair and got that pot bellied dad bod, while Ali looked pretty youthful even when he was old, for the most part. Well, they say black don't crack. (But it does get fat, apparently.)
Foreman was always more serious, too, at least until he became a grandfather and cultivated a new, friendlier image as a commercial pitchman. That surly demeanor was never going to sell a lot of product on QVC, now, was it? Plus Ali was the louder, more upbeat one, and so naturally I thought he was younger. Au contraire. Ali was older, but probably in better shape overall. Plus he probably trained harder, here in this film we mostly see Foreman's training consist of punching the heavy bag, rather slowly at that. Well, what good is that going to do when his opponent is literally running circles around him? You can't hit what you can't catch.
Of course, I already know so much about the "Rumble in the Jungle" fight with Ali that took place in Kinshasa, Zaire in October 1974, because I watched the whole documentary about it, "When We Were Kings". I know that the crowd was chanting, "Ali, kill him!" and that this was where Ali employed the "rope-a-dope" strategy of leaning on the boxing ring ropes, allowing Foreman to get so close that his punches would be ineffective, except for the fact that George would throw so many that he tired himself out. Hey, if that's how you're comfortable winning a boxing match, more power to you, but can you really call yourself "The Greatest" after employing this tactic?
The George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine is not given enough screen time here, really I was hoping that the whole third (or fourth) act of the film was going to be all about Foreman's time as a pitchman for that kitchen grill. I think this was an angle on George that should have been explored in more detail, they teased it in the beginning of the film when he and his brothers and sisters had to all share one hamburger because they were so poor. Why not show his life as a griller in more detail, since it was set up so beautifully at the start? I mean, clearly this is a man who loved food, especially grilled meats and pressed sandwiches, we do get to see him bragging about his special recipe for BBQ sauce at one point, but that's it? We should see him constantly grilling, after he has finally has enough money to buy all the hamburgers he wants and doesn't have to share them with anyone, unless he wants to. The bank manager sort of mentions the income from his grill business as something of an aside, like "Oh, yeah, also the check from the royalties on your little grill side hustle came in, you could be on to something..." Wait, that's IT?
Really we needed a deep dive into how this little grill could possibly both seal in the meaty juices AND simultaneously "knock out" the fat. Wait, is that even possible, and if so, HOW? Aren't the juices the fats, and aren't the fats the flavor? Look, I owned one of his grills, maybe two over the years, and I loved them. I want a whole movie about this grill and the mechanics of the drip-tray, and the effect it had on the eating habits of millions of Americans. What were the total sales of this grill? Why did they change the design after a few years? Besides grilling meats and making pressed sandwiches, what else was it capable of doing? This film makes it sound like Foreman just licensed his name for the product to another company and had no dealings with the research, the design, the marketing strategy and such. Come on, he was the FACE of indoor grilling for years, people stopped having to go outside during rain and snow to grill their meats, that's HUGE! You're going to tell me that he was completely hands-off when it came to the grill business, and he just cashed the check? No, that's too horrible, I refuse to believe it. I prefer to think he was doing "research" every damn day to make that grill the ultimate example of how to put a mini-BBQ grill RIGHT on everyone's counter-top.
You probably think I'm joking, but what if I told you that George Foreman made MORE money from endorsing that grill than he did in his entire career as a boxer? It's true, he got $138 million for the name rights and he earned 40% of the profits from each grill - I know enough "Shark Tank" to understand the power of royalties, he earned $200 million lifetime from this grill. See, even if you can't perform at your job any more, there's always the chance of getting into another, more lucrative career. That's the American way, just don't call it a comeback.
Directed by George Tillman Jr. (director of "Faster" and "The Hate U Give")
Also starring Khris Davis (last seen in "Space Jam: A New Legacy"), Jasmine Mathews (last seen in "The Man from Toronto"), Sullivan Jones, Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (last seen in "Walk of Shame"), John Magaro (last seen in "Overlord"), Sam Trammell (last seen in "The Fault in Our Stars"), Sonja Sohn (last seen in "Shaft" (2000)), Forest Whitaker (last seen in "Havoc" (2025)), Shein Mompremier, Robert Cicchini (last seen in "The Watcher"), Matthew Glave (last seen in "The Way Back"), Erica Tazel (last seen in "House of D"), Dwayne Barnes (last seen in "Blankman"), Deion Smith, K Steele (last seen in "We Have a Ghost"), Austin David Jones, Jordan Yarbrough, Philip Fornah (last seen in "Between Worlds"), Al Sapienza (last seen in "Cellular"), Brian Ibsen, Kei Rawlins, Judd Lormand (last seen in "Snitch"), Don Tieri, Robert Larriviere (last seen in "The Lovebirds"), T.C. Matherne (ditto), Matthew Rimmer (ditto), Ayden Gavin, Azaria Carter, Tom Virtue (last seen in "To Leslie"), Anthony Marble (last seen in "Nickel Boys"), Billy Slaughter (ditto), Bill Martin Williams (ditto), Isaiah A. Evans (ditto), Jordan Bates, Dinetia Dean, Russell Mora (last seen in "Creed III"), Deneen Tyler (last seen in "Runaway Jury"), Lara Grice (ditto), Madison Dirks (last seen in "The Dilemma"), April Dupré, Nile Memmezzwattay, Julia Lashae (last seen in "Love Liza"), Ray King Sr., Slim Danger Barkowska, Greg Wattkis, Samantha Beaulieu (last seen in "Unhinged"), Eric Hanson, Kenneth Martin Jr., Selase Botchway, Makario Glenn, Tre Styles (last seen in "Hit Man"), Chukwuma Onwuchekwa, Keith Hughes, Michael Harrity (last seen in "Judas and the Black Messiah"), Chance C. Morris, Desiree Edwards, Jimbo Stevenson, Raion Hill, Jose Reinaldo Flora, Tommy Wright (last seen in "Fruitvale Station"), Cedric Boswell, Charles Brewer Jr., DJ Walton (last seen in "Creed II"), David Jite, Carlos Takam, Barry Hanley, Zephaniah Terry, Phillip Craddock, Matt Frost, Bob Pelletier, Michael Ricca, David Proctor Jr., Joshua Wade, Mark Baggs, Renaldo Brady, Elisha Davis, Jeffrey Klemmer (last seen in "Affairs of State")
RATING: 6 out of 10 exhibition matches
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